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Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, published a customer notice on Monday formalizing a three-phase plan to go public in 2028. The exchange said 2026 will be spent upgrading internal controls and converting its accounting from Korean GAAP to Korean IFRS, the international standard now required of listed companies. In 2027, Bithumb plans to file for a preliminary listing review with the Korea Exchange. The IPO itself is targeted for 2028, a schedule the company said remains subject to market conditions and regulatory review timelines. Samjong KPMG is advising on the process under a contract running through 2027.
The notice formalizes guidance Bithumb's CFO gave shareholders in March, and represents the latest reset of a listing timeline that has moved for years. Samsung Securities was named lead underwriter in late 2023 for what was then a Kosdaq bid; that plan was scrapped in early 2024, and by September of that year Bithumb was instead courting a Nasdaq listing, citing the credibility of a US listing venue. The exchange has since refocused on a domestic listing, restructuring along the way by spinning off its non-exchange businesses into a separate entity, Bithumb A, in July 2025.
The internal-controls language in the new roadmap points to a specific incident. In February, a Bithumb system error credited hundreds of customers with 620,000 BTC, worth roughly $43 billion at the time, instead of 620,000 won during a promotional campaign. Bitcoin's price on Bithumb's own won-denominated market briefly fell about 17% before deposits and withdrawals were frozen. The exchange has since recovered 99.7% of the erroneous bitcoin, with roughly 125 BTC still unresolved. South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit fined Bithumb 36.8 billion won, about $24.6 million, and ordered a six-month partial business suspension, which a Seoul court has since paused pending appeal.
A separate regulatory question looms over the same timeline. South Korea introduced a 20% cap on major shareholders of crypto exchanges in March, with a grace period once the rule takes effect. Bithumb Holdings currently controls about 73% of the exchange, so compliance will likely require selling a large stake to an outside investor, a dynamic already visible in reported early talks with Kiwoom Securities. The same cap is reshaping the cap table at rival Dunamu, which has sold stakes to Hana Financial and Samsung affiliates while pursuing its own listing through a tie-up with Naver Financial. Bithumb has leaned on international expansion in the meantime, signing a deal in March to help build a licensed exchange in Vietnam.
