Bithumb is the largest bitcoin and ether exchange in South Korea by volume. Bithumb is operated by a company called BTC Korea.com Co, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Bithumb exchange allows traders to exchange the Korean Won for Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic (ETC). On the official website, there is little information to be found about the platform. The fees are stated in the company’s website usage and may change according to the company and market conditions. Users can deposit and withdraw Korean Won, bitcoins and other digital currencies. Bithumb accepts deposit via credit card, debit card and bank transfer.

The exchange has experienced significant growth recently with the rapid increase in trading volume and number of customers. Bithumb accounts for a 75.7% share of South Korean bitcoin market volume, and accounts for about 10% of the global bitcoin trade. Bithumb accounts for around 44 percent of South Korean ether trading. There’s surprising little information about Bithumb’s regulation and team available online. On the official website, you can not find any information about Bithumb’s regulation. The only available information is company registration NO.220-88-71844. Bithumb was recently hacked and that resulted in the loss of billions of won from customers accounts, approximately three percent of customers were hacked. The personal information of 31,800 Bithumb users, including their names, mobile phone numbers, and email addresses were infected by the June 2017 hack. Bithumb provided compensation in the amount of at least 100,000 KRW (~US$86.50) to each affected account. In spite of that, it can be said that the Bithumb network itself is relatively safe now. Bithumb supports both individual and corporate accounts. To register as a basic user on Bithumb, you must provide your name and nationality, and must verify your cell phone and email address. The amount of trading that you will be allowed to do depend on the level of verification that you provide. Some Bitcoin traders have kept their eyes on the Bithumb exchange as a possible opportunity to make money off of Bitcoin arbitrage (Bitcoin is usually marginally more expensive on Bithumb than it is on other exchanges). Bithumb is available to residents of Korea but in my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market. You can not find information about the minimum deposit, regulation, leverage, deposit and withdrawal are not good explained. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. At present, virtual currencies are not regulated by South Korea’s financial authorities and efforts to address the matter have made little progress.

Experiences with Bithumb

Bithumb is a very big cryptocurrency exchange, which suggests it offers deep liquidity. On the other hand, however, it may attract the unwanted attention of the hackers, as it already did and the clients may suffer. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable but in my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market. Some of the user reviews also confirm this. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• You can reach them on the phone, but they can’t act on your case, it’s very difficult to get a manager, they say that they do not speak English
• After a fist deposit too of ripples, it’s been now two-week I am waiting for my deposit, xrp charts told me that the transaction is successful, so I do not understand, after 10 inquiries I have nothing
• My ETH deposit has been missing for 14 days, you have to call customer service and hope for an agent that can communicate and understand English Fluently
• No one from Bithumb will ever call you, you will have to fork out the international calls
• Bithumb isn’t bad at all

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Bithumb Scam? Not quite but needs to improve, 2.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating