Bithumb – Cryptocurrency Exchange Volume and Information

Bithumb is the largest South Korean cryptocurrency exchange by volume and is among the global leaders. Reports of South Korean media estimate that Bithumb holds over 75% of the country’s bitcoin market volume, and around 10% of the global trade. Bithumb also holds around 50% of South Korea’s Ether trading volume and is in practice the largest Ether exchange in the world.

Bithumb is a company that creates the future of a more convenient and more trustworthy digital finance platform through endless innovation.

In addition to Bitcoin, the exchange offers several of the most popular cryptocurrencies: Ether, Dash, Ether Classic, Litecoin, Dash, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Zcash, Qtum against the South Korean Won. The instrument list ranks it among the platforms with wider portfolios like Coincheck, Bisq, Bitfinex, Bitstamp and Kraken.

Leading global digital asset exchange

Bithumb enjoys overwhelming recognition amongst the digital asset exchanges along with high customer loyalty. Growing continuously with the increasing interest in digital assets, blockchains, and FinTech, Bithumb's daily maximum transaction amount has exceeded KRW 6.5 trillion, and the monthly maximum has exceeded KRW 113 trillion.
Through the competitiveness based on abundant liquidity, safe transactions, and transparent operations, Bithumb has the most members amongst Korean exchanges.

Reasons to choose Bithumb

• Selected digital Assets. Bithumb lists selected global market digital assets with recognized investment values for technical skill, stability, and marketability. As such, we protect investors from the damages caused by untested minor coin transactions that have high probability of price manipulation or delisting.
• Abundant Liquidity. Major coins headed by Bitcoin and Ethereum have high market capitalization and investor interest, leading to continuous transactions. Hence, Bithumb can have abundant liquidity and support the fast and smooth sales for investors.
• Transparent Business. Bithumb's foremost management ideology is the 'protection of customer assets', and is safely storing the total amount of customer investment assets (KRW, digital assets). We strictly separate customer investment assets and company operation assets, and periodically disclose on the homepage the asset management status that has been audited by an independent external accounting firm.
• 100% Cash Reserve. Bithumb has over KRW 20 billion in capital funds, a significantly higher amount than KRW 2 billion capital requirement for a digital asset exchange. Customer's KRW assets are stored in an external bank account and digital assets are separately stored in hot and cold wallets. Over 100% in cash reserves are always maintained.

Similarly to the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb does not offer leveraged trading in the tokens, but only spot trading. There are some platforms, like Kraken, GDAX, Okex, Quoinex and Bitfinex who provide the option for trading on margin. There are also a growing number of forex brokers like IG, HYCM, easyMarketsand FXTM, who offer leveraged trading on CFDs on some of the more popular cryptocurrencies.

Bithumb is the largest South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. It is not specifically regulated, but presumably, like all platforms operating from within the country, is subject to some oversight from the South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC). Additionally, it may be subjected to on-site inspections by representatives of the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the National Tax Service (Korean IRS) and the police.

Recently the FSC banned the initial coin offerings (ICOs) in order to safeguard inexperienced investors from potential MLM and Ponzi Schemes, but maintained that the cryptocurrencies are electronic representations of value and not financial products such as securities. The FSC, however, keeps an eye on the platforms and the currency flow through the banks. For the time being cryptocurrencies can be traded on an exchange only if a bank has confirmed the authorization of an account.

According to media reports, in the summer of 2017, Bithumb was subject to a hacker attack. The company maintained that it was not its servers attacked, but the computer of one of its employees. From there the hackers stole the personal data and passwords of nearly 31 800 or 3% of the users and stole 1.2 billion won (a little over $1 million) in altcoins and fiat currencies.

Construct the most secure system in the indust

Bithumb is making a collective effort for the protection of customer assets by constructing a data security system at the top level in the industry. Regulation that recommends that 5% of all personnel in the financial institution be IT specialists, 5% of IT personnel be data security exclusive personnel, and 7% of the total budget be used for data protection.

Bithumb security's competitive edge

• Construct a security solution on the level of financial institutions. Bithumb was the first Korean digital asset exchange to implement the comprehensive security solution used by commercial banks and constructed the vaccine system to reduce the risks of damages from hacking and strengthening the exchange server's security level even further.
• Purchased comprehensive cyber insurance with a maximum coverage of KRW 6 billion. Bithumb has purchased coverage of 3 billion each from Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance ('New cyber comprehensive insurance') and Heungkuk Fire & Marine Insurance ('Personal information leakage liability insurance') to obtain the largest insurance coverage in the industry, and is constructing strong legal devices for safe transactions.
• Network separation and security infrastructure construction. Oriented towards the top global level in security systems, Bithumb has arranged for network separation as well as an intrusion block and prevention system against external hacks. We have consulted with the top security firm in Korea to maintain a 24/7 monitoring system.
• Plans to obtain global certification for security. We obtained ISMS (Information Security Management System) and are planning to PIMS (Personal Information Management System), ISO27001 (international standard for information security), and other certification to demonstrate our high level of security.

In addition to the spot trading service, Bithumb also provides the money transfer service (for Bitcoins and wons) and an e-wallet for cryptocurrency storage.

As most cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb requires some customer verification, particularly before processing withdrawal requests. Like most cryptocurrency exchanges for spot trading, Bithumb sticks to basics and its trading platform does not have any redundant bells and whistles.

The platform offers three trading options: general trade, easy trade and reserved trade. The general trade is self-explanatory. The easy trade provides the automatic transactions with pre-ordered amount with real time price. Purchase is made in the order from the lower sell amount, and it can change with real time transaction value. The reserved trade places an order at the market price as per the amount the client has requested at the reserved base price.

Strengthen customer communication

Bithumb is operating the largest customer support center in the industry. Through the center, Bithumb has increased the point of contact for communication with customers and provides faster and more professional customer support center services. We are also increasing our efforts for employment security and various employee benefits to increase customer support agent's self-esteem and sense of belonging.

24/7 Customer Service

Bithumb operates the largest customer support center in the industry with 'customer-focused' service as its motto. 24/7 standby agents conduct support activities swiftly and accurately within the 2,900 m² customer support center. The service provided is excellent compared to not only other digital asset exchanges but other general financial institutions as well. The centers provide foreign language (English, Chinese, Japanese etc.) customer support as well as faster and specialized services for VIP customers.

Customer Support (off-line)

Bithumb operates the first off-line customer support center in the industry for Korea, providing 1-on-1 personalized customer support services. Gangnam center provides professional services including instructions in using the Bithumb exchange, digital asset transactions, information on real-name transaction systems, and plans to cope with financial damages. There are foreigner-specialized agents as well as VIP customer exclusive areas in the off-line customer support centers.