Bithumb Sets Sights on 2028 IPO After Governance Upgrades

Bithumb, one of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has set its sights on an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028. The company has published a three-stage plan to prepare for this milestone, starting with upgrading its governance and converting to the K-IFRS accounting standard in 2026. A preliminary listing review is scheduled for 2027 before the IPO attempt in 2028.

The decision comes after a costly internal mistake in February when an employee mistakenly credited customers with roughly 620,000 BTC, worth around $43 billion at the time. Although the exchange recovered most of the erroneous balances, the incident exposed weaknesses in approval procedures and operational safeguards, prompting South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service to examine Bithumb's internal controls and risk management practices.

The company has hired Samjong KPMG through 2027 to help guide the process. Bithumb's CFO, Jeong Sang-gyun, acknowledged in March that accounting policies and internal governance needed improvement before moving forward with an IPO.