South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency and digital asset trading platform by trading volume, Bithumb gets acquired by a Singapore-based Blockchain Consortium. BK Global Consortium who owns the renowned BK Medical Group from Singapore bought majority stake about 50 percent in the exchange. Furthermore, the stakeholders have acquired the stakes with the worth of 400 million won (equivalent to $353 million).
Yonhap, a major news outlet based in South Korea, reported about the acquisition. Furthermore, the previous majority stakeholders, BTC Holdings Ltd with over 75.99 percent stakes agreed to sell their 51 percent stakes to the Singapore-based Blockchain Consortium, BK Global.
Bithumb reported a cryptocurrency trading volume of over $1+ billion in a single working day. For an exchange launched recently in 2016, Bithumb quickly became the world’s second-biggest trading platform, followed by the China-based Binance.
Why investors are hopeful about the deal?
BK Medical Group does aesthetic and plastic surgery clinics and hospitals in countries like Singapore and South Korea which is owned by the BK Global. The exchange garnered a profit of about $30 million in the first quarter of this year. Furthermore, the exchange has also witnessed and survived over 3 breaches by a hacker. One of those resulted in the suspension of users accounts and wallets. The breach amounted to a loss of over $30 million.
Furthermore, an unofficial anonymous source close to the Singapore-based Blockchain Consortium, BK Global stated this. “E-commerce companies such as Amazon and Alibaba are receiving large commission fees, which have become an issue for consumers. Blockchain payment systems can reduce those commission fees.”
Upbit, another cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform in South Korea, stands the only contender and competitor to Bithumb. Investors are hopeful because cryptocurrency exchange operated by billion dollar financial giants are safe.
Furthermore, they are safe, transparent and secure. They can easily endure and withstand security breaches and disarm hacking attempts.