Bithumb Korea, the operator of a local cryptocurrency exchange, saw a 1,100 percent jump in its net profit, according to a financial statement of Vident, the largest shareholder of the exchange on Wednesday.
Bithumb’s revenue in the first half of the year stood at 608.7 billion won ($520.9 million), soaring 507 percent on-year, while its net profit rose a whopping 1,100 percent to 603.3 billion won, the data showed. Kim Sung-kwon, a press officer at Vident, said Bithumb‘s annual net profit could reach 1.5 trillion won this year.
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Vident financial statements Graph: Park Ga-young/The Korea Herald |
The company’s robust profit was backed by the bullish cryptocurrency market earlier this year, which also boosted profitability of other cryptocurrency exchanges. Upbit’s revenue during the first six months is estimated to exceed 1 trillion won based on its estimated transaction volume of $1.77 trillion, according to Coin Gecko, a cryptocurrency data provider.
According to Rep. Kim Hee-gon of the People Power Party, Bithumb added 738,988 new users in the first six months of this year and its trading volume reached 630.38 billion won.
Vident, a Kosdaq-listed broadcast monitor maker, owns 10.23 percent in Bithumb Korea and 34.22 percent in Bithumb Holdings, the holding company of Bithumb Korea.
Vident, which had recorded an operating loss for three years since 2018, turned around last year due to its stake in Bithumb. The company said last month that it is making forays into artificial intelligence, metaverse and nonfungible token businesses.
By Park Ga-young (
gypark@heraldcorp.com)
