South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb Aims to Go Public by 2025

South Korea’s Bithumb is preparing to become the first cryptocurrency exchange in the country to be a publicly listed company, according to multiple local media reports. Interestingly, the listing aims not to raise funds but to enhance market trust in its operations.

Bithumb to Become a Publicly-Listed Crypto Exchange

“Our IPO is not about raising funds,” a Bithumb official said today (Monday). “Many people have doubts about cryptocurrency exchanges because they perceive them as not being transparent [and the aim is to tackle that].”

In fact, by the close of the first half of 2023, the crypto exchange reported financial product assets exceeding 400 billion won ($302 million). The current balance sheet indicates that there is no necessity for the exchange to raise additional funds.

Bithumb's official further highlighted that being the first crypto exchange to enter the “regulatory framework” would help it gain market trust.

Bithumb is currently the second-largest crypto exchange in South Korea in terms of trading volume, following Upbit. While Upbit dominates with 80 percent of the local crypto market share, Bithumb only has 15 to 20 percent.

Timeline Is Set

The exchange has already started preparing to list on the local stock exchange. It is considering listing on Kosdaq, South Korea’s second-largest bourse, but it is also open to hitting the largest stock exchange, Kospi.

“We selected Samsung Securities as our manager for initial public offering at the end of [October]. We aim to go public during the second half of 2025,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Lee Jung-hoon, the former Chairman of both Bithumb and Bithumb Holdings, has rejoined the board of Bithumb Holdings. As the largest shareholder, Lee holds a commanding 73.56 percent stake in the crypto exchange, Bithumb.

The popularity of cryptocurrency is again rising. However, only a handful of crypto exchanges are publicly listed. One of the top publicly-listed exchanges is Coinbase, while other bit brands like Binance and OKX are private, with hardly any operational information available publicly.