 |
Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] South Korea’s won-based cryptocurrency exchanges have completed disclosures of benefits provided to select users over the past five years, with Bithumb overwhelmingly leading the industry by offering more than ₩3 trillion in incentives.
According to the disclosures by five major exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax—Bithumb recorded 508 users who each received more than ₩1 billion in financial benefits, the highest among the group.
The top beneficiary at Bithumb alone received ₩235 billion in total benefits, with ₩234.5 billion coming from fee-related incentives such as coupons and discounts. Additional benefits included ₩320 million from marketing events and ₩190 million from membership perks. Another top user received ₩217.9 billion, also largely from fee discounts.
In total, Bithumb distributed ₩3.1591 trillion in benefits to these users, with 97.6% concentrated in fee-related incentives. The figures reflect the exchange’s aggressive marketing strategy, including a zero-fee policy implemented from October 2023 to January 2024 and ongoing fee discount coupons reducing trading fees from 0.25% to as low as 0.04%.
Bithumb’s scale far exceeds its competitors, surpassing the average of the other four exchanges (₩753 billion) by more than four times. Compared to Upbit—the market leader by trading volume—which reported just ₩9.9 billion in total benefits, Bithumb’s figure is roughly 300 times larger.
However, concentration of benefits appears more pronounced at other exchanges. At Upbit, 67% of total benefits (₩6.6 billion) went to a single user. Similarly, Korbit allocated 44% (₩9.9 billion) of its ₩22.5 billion total to one individual, while Coinone distributed 22% (₩116.3 billion) of its ₩523.9 billion to a single user. In contrast, Bithumb’s top beneficiary accounted for just 7.4% of its total due to the much larger overall pool.
The disclosures were made under self-regulatory guidelines set by the DAXA, which require exchanges to report any cases where individuals received more than ₩1 billion in financial benefits over the past five years. Bithumb initially limited its disclosure period to early 2026 but released the full five-year data on April 30 following fairness concerns raised by peers.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
