Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
Korea's biggest crypto exchange sold to Singapore consortium for W400 bil.
Bithumb headquarters in Seoul
By Jhoo Dong-chan
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Bithumb, the nation's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has been sold to a Singapore-based consortium.
Bithumb said in a press release, Friday, that BK Global Consortium, a plastic surgery medical group in Singapore, concluded a deal to buy 50 percent and one share of BTC Korea Holdings for 400 billion won ($352.5 million) Thursday. BTC Korea is currently the virtual coin exchange's largest shareholder with a 75.99 percent stake.
BK Global Consortium paid 11.3 billion won on Thursday. The remaining balance of 388.7 billion is due in February.
The move is set to make BK Global Consortium the largest controller of Bithumb when the transaction is completed.
“BK Global Consortium believes the value of Bithumb is worth more than 1 trillion won,” a Bithumb official said.
“The consortium is a global blockchain investor group. The partnership with the consortium will create synergy as it will help maximize Bithumb's knowhow and potential to further develop blockchain technologies.”
BK Global Consortium is a blockchain investment firm led by BK Group Chairman Kim Byung-gun, a plastic surgeon turned business tycoon. He is also chairman of Singapore ICO Platform.
“Kim has demonstrated his multinational management ability in the fields of healthcare, fintech, blockchain and biotech firms,” a BK Global Consortium official said. “He is the right person to pursue the systemization and globalization of the virtual currency exchange.”
The consortium added it will pay an additional $40 million within two weeks and plans to finalize the entire transaction by December.
According to a Financial Supervisory Service report, Bithumb's current operator BTC Korea posted 333.4 billion won in sales with a 427.1 billion won net profit last year, up 76 and 179 times respectively from the previous year.
In June, cyber criminals stole an estimated 35 billion won worth of virtual coins from Bithumb. The exchange immediately disclosed the cyberattack while suspending deposit and withdrawal services.
Korea has become one of the busiest virtual coin-trading countries in the world, and Bithumb is the world's seventh-largest exchange with daily trading volume of 500 billion won worth of virtual coins.