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Kiwoom Securities Eyes Bithumb Stake; Korean Crypto Law Nears
Kiwoom joins Hana Bank and Samsung in buying Korean exchange stakes. A new bill caps individual holdings at 20%. Bithumb's phantom Bitcoin glitch from Feb 2026 still haunts.
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South Korea's Kiwoom Securities has opened talks to buy a stake in Bithumb, the country's second-biggest crypto exchange, according to Chosun Biz. The deal would use a third-party allotment of new shares, with neither the price nor the final stake size settled yet.
Bithumb confirmed it is fielding proposals from several financial firms but said nothing binding has been signed. Kiwoom declined to comment.
Kiwoom is not the only traditional finance player chasing Korean exchange equity. Last month Hana Bank said it would spend $670 million for a piece of Dunamu, the parent of top exchange Upbit. Three Samsung affiliates separately committed $407.7 million for a combined 4% of Dunamu. OKX Ventures in May took a 19.6% stake in Coinone, and Binance finally closed its purchase of Gopax after a long regulatory review.
Outside the deal flow, Kiwoom has been building digital asset infrastructure through a consortium called KDX, which includes the Korea Exchange, Kyobo Life, and KakaoPay Securities. The group is developing a compliance layer for token trading.
Bithumb comes with baggage. In February 2026 an internal error sent roughly 620,000 phantom Bitcoin to customer accounts, triggering a flash crash that pushed Bitcoin to about $55,000. The glitch wrecked Bithumb's regulatory standing and forced it to shelve its IPO, originally planned with Samjong KPMG. The listing is now pushed back to no earlier than 2028.
Still, Bithumb is looking outward. In March it signed a memorandum of understanding with SSI Digital to explore a digital asset exchange in Vietnam.
The bigger backdrop is South Korea's Digital Asset Basic Act, which has been delayed but is expected to advance in the second half of 2026. One proposed rule would cap individual ownership of exchange equity at 20%, with a possible exception up to 34% under certain conditions. That cap directly affects the structure of any deal Kiwoom strikes.