Bithumb sets 2028 IPO date, with a 2027 filing and an accounting overhaul in between

South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange said Monday it is targeting an initial public offering in 2028, laying out a three-stage timetable in a notice on its own website. The Block, which reported the notice, said Bithumb will spend the rest of 2026 tightening internal controls and converting its books from Korean GAAP to K-IFRS, the country's IFRS-based accounting framework; request a preliminary listing review from local authorities in 2027; and complete the listing in 2028. Bithumb attached the usual caveat — the schedule depends on market conditions and how long the regulatory review takes.

The exchange framed the move in trust terms rather than growth terms. "Bithumb's listing is not simply about expanding the company's size, but a process of building solid trust so that customers can trade with greater peace of mind," the company wrote, per The Block's report. Bithumb also said it is building a risk-management framework "to the level required of global listed companies" with an unnamed leading domestic accounting firm, has restructured business units to reduce conflicts of interest, and is working with domestic and overseas securities firms, law firms and accountants on valuation and listing-review strategy.

The date is not new so much as reconfirmed. Bithumb had originally aimed at a 2025 listing, pushed it back, and had already signalled a 2028 window, The Block reported. Rival Upbit's operator, Dunamu, is pursuing its own listing through a tie-up with Naver Financial.

Key facts

• IPO targeted for 2028; preliminary listing review to be requested in 2027 — Bithumb notice, via The Block (Aug. 3, 2026).
• 2026 workstream: internal controls plus migration from K-GAAP to K-IFRS — same notice.
• Earlier target was 2025, since pushed back — The Block.
• Earlier this year an employee mistakenly distributed roughly 620,000 BTC, worth about $43 billion at the time, to users in a promotional campaign, triggering a Financial Supervisory Service probe into Bithumb's internal controls and risk management — The Block.
• Dunamu (Upbit) is pursuing an IPO with Naver Financial — The Block.

The real-world read

The notice is a corporate communication from Bithumb about Bithumb, and it reads like one: every claim about restructuring, risk frameworks and conflict-of-interest cleanup is the company grading its own homework, with no regulator, auditor or underwriter named to back it. The accounting firm is unidentified. So are the securities and law firms.

What the notice conspicuously does not mention is the reason the timetable now leads with internal controls. Bithumb's own control failure — the erroneous promotional distribution and the FSS review that followed — is the context for a K-IFRS conversion being presented as step one, and the company's pivot to "management transparency" language lands differently against it.

The 620,000 BTC figure deserves a flag: that is roughly 3% of bitcoin's total supply, far beyond what any exchange would plausibly hold, and the implied price of about $69,000 per coin is well below recent levels. Whether that was credited balances rather than transferred coin has not been spelled out publicly, and Bithumb's Monday notice does not address the incident at all.

No prospectus, no valuation, no underwriter, no venue has been disclosed. A 2027 filing is a plan, not a permission.

Opinion, and whose

Only Bithumb's. The company's assertions that the listing will "maximize corporate value" and demonstrate transparency are its own forecast and framing, not established fact. No analyst, regulator or bank estimate of Bithumb's value or listing odds has been made public.

Sources

• The Block, Danny Park (Aug. 3, 2026) — reported Bithumb's website notice and supplied the timeline, quotes, the 2025-to-2028 slippage, the 620,000 BTC incident and FSS probe, and the Dunamu/Naver Financial comparison. The Block discloses that Foresight Ventures has been a majority investor since November 2023, and that Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight.
• Bithumb's own notice — the underlying primary document, cited here as reported by The Block. It is company communication, not independent verification.

This is a single-sourced report; nothing here has been corroborated by a second outlet or by regulatory filings, and Bithumb's claims about its controls remain unverified.

Not financial advice.