Privacy watchdog fines Bithumb $135,700 for violating overseas data transfer rules

People walk past Bithumb's customer lounge in Seoul, March 4. Yonhap

Korea's privacy watchdog said Thursday it has fined Bithumb, a major crypto exchange in the country, 210 million won ($135,700) for violating rules on the overseas transfer of users' personal information.

The Personal Information Protection Commission decided to levy the penalty and order corrective measures against the company over the violations in a plenary session the previous day.

The regulator said its investigation found Bithumb transferred the personal information of users overseas while sharing order books with a foreign exchange between September and November 2025.

Although Bithumb notified users that their information would be sent to the Stellar exchange, it was actually transferred to bingx.com, a system operated by a different exchange.

The watchdog additionally found that Bithumb failed to receive proper consent from users when sending their personal information to 13 foreign exchanges during asset transfers.