Bithumb Targets 2028 IPO After Governance Upgrades, KPMG Hire

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has published a three-stage roadmap targeting an initial public offering in 2028, putting concrete dates behind a listing plan that has shifted repeatedly.

The company will spend 2026 upgrading its governance structure and converting its financial reporting to K-IFRS, the accounting standard used by publicly traded firms in South Korea. A preliminary listing review is planned for 2027, followed by an IPO attempt in 2028.

Bithumb had previously targeted a 2025 listing. Executives later acknowledged the exchange needed stronger internal controls and a more mature compliance framework before going public. Chief Financial Officer Jeong Sang-gyun said in March that accounting policies and governance had to improve first. The company has hired Samjong KPMG through the end of 2027 to guide the process.

The urgency behind those changes became clear after a costly internal mistake in February. During a promotional campaign, an employee mistakenly credited customers with roughly 620,000 bitcoin instead of a much smaller amount denominated in Korean won. The error remained largely on Bithumb’s internal ledger, but it exposed weaknesses in approval procedures and operational safeguards.

Bithumb recovered about 99.7% of the erroneous balances, absorbed the remaining loss from its own reserves, and later created a customer protection fund. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service examined the exchange’s internal controls and risk management practices after the incident.

Financially, Bithumb enters the IPO process from a position of relative strength. The exchange reported 2025 revenue of 651.3 billion won – roughly $430 million to $450 million – up 31.2% from the prior year. Operating profit climbed 22.3% to 163.5 billion won, though net profit fell because of valuation losses tied to crypto assets held on its balance sheet.