Korea’s 2nd-Biggest Cryptocurrency Exchange Bithumb Resumes User Registrations

Crypto markets are stabilizing and improving. Enabling companies to begin focusing on their next phase of growth.

Bithumb

Bithumb, South Korea’s second-biggest crypto exchange by daily trading volume behind UPbit, will officially resume registrations for new investors as early as this week.

NH Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, is set to sign an agreement with Bithumb on August 30 to provide virtual bank accounts to Bithumb users, which will allow new users to trade on the trading platform.

In South Korea, cryptocurrency exchanges are required to operate virtual bank accounts so that users can withdraw and deposit Korean won without having to directly deal with their respective banks for efficiency and security.

What Bithumb’s Registration Resumption Means

Since early 2018, as its partnership with NH Bank was dematerialized and it experienced a $40 million security breach which disabled deposits and withdrawals on Bithumb for a whole month, Bithumb has not been able to accept new traders on its platform.

As CCN previously reported, an official from Nonghyup Bank told Business Korea:

“We have decided not to renew the contract because Bithumb still has problems in protecting consumers and information and preventing money laundering.”

As seen in its decline in profits in the third quarter of 2018, the trading volume and user activity of Bithumb stagnated due to its inability to support new users and facilitate trades in July.

But, this month, the government of South Korea approved UPbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and a few other cryptocurrency exchanges for having...