South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb now expects its initial public offering (IPO) sometime after 2028, marking another delay as the firm works through restructuring and regulatory issues.
At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, CFO Jeong Sang-gyun said Bithumb will “focus on preparing for the listing until 2027,” adding the exchange is strengthening accounting policies and internal controls after engaging Samjong KPMG as an IPO adviser. Bithumb had previously targeted a 2025 listing.
Shareholders reconfirmed CEO Lee Jae-won for a two-year term at the meeting. Under Lee’s tenure, the exchange faced a six-month suspension and a $24 million fine from South Korean authorities over alleged anti-money-laundering violations.
Bithumb made headlines in February when it mistakenly credited many users with about 2,000 Bitcoin instead of 2,000 South Korean won, briefly creating internal balances that summed to more than $40 billion on the exchange’s ledger; most of those entries were later reversed.
A major domestic exchange going public could influence local markets and crypto adoption. Dunamu, operator of Upbit, is reportedly planning an IPO following a share swap with Naver Financial, expected in September.
Policy shifts in South Korea have been mixed. Pro-crypto president Lee Jae-myung took office in June 2025, and his party moved to introduce legislation on issuing payment stablecoins. A proposed tax on crypto gains—initially expected to take effect in 2021—has faced repeated delays and, according to March reports, could be scrapped.
As of March 2025, an estimated 16 million South Koreans held accounts on crypto exchanges.
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