South Korea’s Top Crypto Exchanges Upbit and Bithumb See Revenue Cut in Half as Trading Activity Slumps

South Korea’s two largest crypto exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, posted steep drops in revenue and profit for the first half of 2026, reflecting a broader slowdown in local crypto trading activity.

Upbit’s parent company, Dunamu, saw consolidated operating revenue fall 49.1% year-over-year to 408.1 billion won ($289 million), down from 801.9 billion won ($568 million). Operating profit dropped 79.7% to 111.5 billion won ($79 million), while net profit fell 74.1% to 108.4 billion won ($77 million).

Bithumb faced a similar downturn, with operating revenue down 48.7% to 168.8 billion won ($120 million). Operating profit sank 83.4% to 14.9 billion won ($11 million), and the exchange swung to a net loss of 108.7 billion won ($77 million), compared to a net profit the previous year.

What’s Driving the Slowdown

The decline stems largely from weak performance in major cryptocurrencies and thinner market liquidity. Bitcoin dropped more than 30% in the first half of the year, sliding from around $90,000 to about $60,000, while Ethereum fared worse, falling from $3,000 to roughly $1,600 over the same period.

Several setbacks weighed on sentiment during this stretch, including delays to the Clarity Act, Strategy’s sale of its bitcoin holdings, and heavy outflows from U.S. crypto exchange-traded funds. Dunamu attributed the downturn to shrinking liquidity across global digital asset markets, which weakened investor confidence.

Much of that investor capital instead flowed into South Korean equities, with the benchmark KOSPI index more than doubling in the first half of the year, fueled by a rally in semiconductor stocks tied to strong global demand for AI-related memory chips.

Across South Korea’s five licensed exchanges, combined second-quarter trading volume dropped 49.5% year-over-year to $146.43 billion.

Both Exchanges Restructuring Despite the Downturn

Even as trading activity contracts, both companies are repositioning for the long term. Dunamu is finalizing a share-swap deal with Naver Financial that would make it a subsidiary of the fintech company, with plans for a future public listing, potentially on Nasdaq, within five years.

Major financial and industrial players have also taken stakes in Dunamu this year. Hana Financial Group acquired a 6.55% stake for about 1 trillion won ($708 million) and signed an agreement covering won-backed stablecoins and blockchain remittance services. Three Samsung affiliates added a combined 4% stake worth roughly 613 billion won ($434 million).

Bithumb, meanwhile, is targeting an IPO by 2028, with plans to strengthen internal controls this year ahead of a preliminary listing review in 2027. The exchange is also in talks with Kiwoom Securities over a potential stake sale and recently partnered with SSI Digital to expand into Vietnam.