Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced plans to expand into offline payments by enabling users to spend crypto at more than 6,000 physical retail locations nationwide. The initiative marks another step in the exchange’s effort to move beyond trading and bring digital assets into everyday consumer use.
A broader push into real-world crypto spending
The new service will be developed in partnership with Korea Pay’s Service, a company that operates digital payment services and a mobile gift certificate platform. According to the details cited in the original report, Korea Pay’s Service has built alliances across more than 400 domestic channels, including major franchise brands, and works with more than 200 franchise partners. Through that network, Bithumb expects shoppers to be able to purchase goods at around 6,000 stores from brands such as Cafe DropTop, Yankee Candle, and Sulbing, a well-known dessert chain in South Korea.
Bithumb said the payment flow will rely on barcodes generated through a mobile app. Customers will be able to present those barcodes at participating cafes, restaurants, and other merchants, using cryptocurrencies held in their exchange accounts to complete transactions. The model is designed to make digital assets more practical for day-to-day payments rather than limiting them to exchange-based trading and speculation.
The exchange also framed the move as part of a wider global trend. It noted that more developed virtual asset markets, including the United States, Japan, and Switzerland, have already seen crypto payment services gain traction. On that basis, Bithumb said it intends to continue expanding the service through additional partnerships over time.
According to the plan outlined in the report, the offline payment service is expected to launch in the first half of the year. Bithumb further aims to increase the number of supported stores from the initial 6,000-plus footprint to 8,000 locations by year-end. If achieved, that would significantly strengthen its position in Korea’s emerging crypto commerce infrastructure.
Competition beyond exchange volumes
At the time referenced in the source material, Bithumb was the second-largest crypto exchange in South Korea by 24-hour trading activity, posting approximately $507 million in volume. Upbit, backed by Kakao, ranked first with about $910 million in 24-hour volume over the same period, based on CoinMarketCap data cited in the article.
Those figures help explain why Bithumb may be pursuing a broader business strategy that extends beyond exchange trading. In a competitive domestic market, building merchant acceptance, payment rails, and offline user touchpoints could offer a way to differentiate its brand and deepen customer engagement. Rather than competing only on spot volume, token listings, or trading features, Bithumb appears to be pushing into consumer finance and retail utility.
That approach is particularly notable in a market like South Korea, where digital adoption is high and mobile payments are already widely embedded in daily life. If users can move from holding crypto on an exchange to spending it seamlessly at recognizable storefronts, the barrier between trading accounts and real-world consumption could narrow considerably.
Offline support centers are expanding too
The announcement on merchant payments comes alongside a separate expansion of Bithumb’s offline customer service operations. The company recently said it had enlarged its customer service center in Gangnam, Seoul, in response to rising visitor demand. With the expansion, the number of consultation counters reportedly increased from four to eight.
Bithumb said the upgraded service structure supports multiple languages, including English, Japanese, and Chinese. It also includes a dedicated consultation lounge for VIP clients. In addition, the company has created help counters focused on issues such as voice phishing and hacking-related incidents, indicating that its walk-in service model is being used not only for onboarding or account questions but also for security and fraud response.
According to the exchange, it was already operating major customer centers in key cities across the country. The reported walk-in locations include Gangnam, Gwanghwamun, Busan Centum City, and Daejeon. Bithumb added that its consultation centers receive an average of more than 100 visitors per day nationwide.
This investment in in-person support is important in the context of financial services and crypto adoption. While many exchanges operate entirely online, Bithumb’s decision to maintain and expand physical service centers suggests a strategy aimed at trust-building, accessibility, and resolving customer issues in a more traditional service environment. That could prove especially useful for newer users entering the crypto market or for customers dealing with fraud, security incidents, or large account-related questions.
More payment partnerships are under discussion
The source material also noted that Bithumb had been in talks with Wemakeprice, a major South Korean online shopping platform. While Bithumb had referred to the potential partnership multiple times, Wemakeprice had not publicly confirmed the arrangement at the time of the report. Even so, the mention suggests that Bithumb was exploring e-commerce integrations alongside its growing push into brick-and-mortar retail use cases.
In addition, Bithumb said it had partnered with Innovation Corp, which operates a Korean travel platform covering more than 50,000 hotels and accommodation facilities. Through that arrangement, users would be able to pay with any cryptocurrencies they hold at Bithumb across a broad set of travel-related bookings. The company was also moving forward with crypto-enabled kiosks at restaurants and cafes to support food ordering and digital asset payments.
Taken together, these initiatives point to a multi-channel strategy: offline retail checkout, online commerce discussions, hospitality and travel integration, and dedicated payment kiosks for food and beverage venues. Rather than treating crypto as an isolated financial product, Bithumb is attempting to embed it into multiple consumer payment contexts.
What the rollout could mean for the market
Bithumb’s offline payment service is significant because it addresses one of the cryptocurrency sector’s long-standing challenges: real-world usability. Trading volumes can be large, but merchant acceptance often remains limited. A network of more than 6,000 stores, with plans to expand to 8,000, would give users a much more visible and practical spending environment.
Whether the model gains mainstream adoption will depend on user experience, merchant participation, operational reliability, and the economics of converting digital assets into point-of-sale transactions. But at the strategic level, the initiative reflects a broader effort to normalize crypto payments in daily life and to create a stronger bridge between exchanges and commerce.
Combined with its expanding physical support footprint and its parallel partnerships in retail, food, and travel, Bithumb is signaling that it wants to be more than a trading venue. It wants to become part of the payment infrastructure surrounding digital assets in South Korea.