Bithumb's 2028 IPO Plan: From 620,000 BTC Blunder to Boardroom 🪙

Bithumb has published a three-stage roadmap targeting a 2028 initial public offering, telling customers on August 3, 2026 that it will upgrade internal controls this year, file for a preliminary listing review in 2027 and complete the listing in 2028. The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, which competes with Dunamu-operated Upbit for the domestic market, said the timetable could change depending on market conditions and the review schedules of relevant authorities.

The exchange framed the push almost entirely around trust, saying it is rebuilding risk management to the standard required of regulated financial firms. Bithumb outlined a shift from Korean accounting standard K-GAAP to the global K-IFRS framework used by listed South Korean companies, alongside a strengthening of compliance monitoring to institutional-finance level. It has split off Bithumb Asset to separate business lines and reduce scope for conflicts of interest, engaged domestic and overseas underwriters, law firms and accountants, and promised regular disclosure of its finances and crypto holdings.

The roadmap follows a turbulent year for the exchange. In February 2026, a staff error during a promotional campaign credited 249 users with 620,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $43 billion, instead of 620,000 Korean won in BTC, temporarily crashing the local BTC price by about 17%. Bithumb recovered 99.7% of the phantom balances, covered a 1,788 BTC shortfall from corporate reserves and established a ₩100 billion ($68 million) Customer Protection Fund. The company later filed for provisional seizure orders to recover 7 BTC worth $496,000 from users who refused to return the mistakenly distributed Bitcoin.

Regulators fined Bithumb $24.5 million in March and ordered a six-month partial suspension over anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer failures; a court blocked the order in April after the exchange challenged it. Separately, chief executive Lee Jae-won was booked as a bribery suspect over the alleged hiring of National Assembly member Kim Byung-ki's second son following a November 2024 restaurant meeting in Seoul's Mapo district, with police searching Bithumb's headquarters in February and June.

The listing push lands as South Korea's 22% cryptocurrency gains tax is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2027, and as rival exchanges deepen traditional finance ties: Mirae Asset Consulting took control of Korbit on July 23, while Upbit operator Dunamu is pursuing a share-swap deal to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Naver Financial. Two Bithumb-linked listed companies, Vidente and Bucket Studio, have had shares suspended since March 2023 over audit and listing issues, with Bucket Studio appointing a former police official as standing auditor in June and Vidente planning to appoint a former National Tax Service official.