Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange, has confirmed that its IPO will be delayed to after 2028. At its annual general meeting, CFO Jung Sang-gyun said the company’s immediate priority is to complete listing preparations by 2027, with work focused on accounting policies and internal control systems. The exchange had previously aimed to go public in 2025, so the latest change pushes the schedule back by at least several years.
The company has also signed an IPO advisory agreement with Samjong KPMG, showing that the listing plan remains in place even as the timetable has been extended. For a major exchange that has spent years trying to secure a public market debut, a longer runway also keeps attention on whether its governance and controls can catch up.
Dunamu moves faster as the race to list sharpens
Bithumb’s delay stands out more because rival Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, is moving ahead. According to the report, Dunamu is pursuing a listing through a share swap deal with Naver Financial and is targeting September this year for the listing. If that happens, Dunamu would become the first crypto exchange in South Korea to complete an IPO.
That gap matters in a market where Upbit has long held more than 70% of trading volume. If Bithumb cannot use a public listing to raise capital and strengthen its business position, the distance between the two platforms may widen even more. The competitive pressure is immediate, not theoretical.
AML penalties and the 2,000 BTC mistake remain part of the story
Bithumb’s listing path has been shaped by compliance issues from recent years. Under current CEO Lee Jae-won, the exchange was punished for anti-money laundering violations with a six-month business suspension and a $24 million fine. Even so, Lee was reappointed at the latest shareholder meeting and secured a new two-year term.
A technical error this year also raised fresh questions about internal safeguards. In February, Bithumb’s system mistakenly credited a user with 2,000 BTC instead of 2,000 won, briefly creating an abnormal balance worth about $40 billion. The exchange later reversed the incorrect credit, but the incident still drew attention to weaknesses in operational controls and system reliability.
A friendlier policy climate does not remove exchange-level risks
At the policy level, the environment in South Korea has become more supportive for the crypto sector. The source says President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June 2025, has backed the industry, advanced stablecoin legislation, and may also remove crypto taxes.
But a better regulatory backdrop does not guarantee a smooth listing. In Bithumb’s case, the central issues remain the same: past compliance failures, technology risk, and whether internal governance can be strengthened within the next two years. The IPO has not been abandoned. It has simply been pushed into a much longer wait.