Bithumb, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world in terms of volume made a whopping profit of $35 million USD during the first half of 2018. According to the local publication Yonhap, the South Korean exchange achieved impressive figures despite the fact that it was hacked recently.
In the report published on August 22, the journalist stated “The sales amounted to 33,060 million won, and the operating profit was about 2,186,330 million won.”
Impressive Feat despite the Bad Times
The result is by no chance very surprising. The cryptocurrency exchange minted 427.17 billion won (roughly $38 million USD) in the year 2017. However, due to unavailability of figures for 2017 Q1 and Q2, a proper comparison cannot be made.
What makes the 2018 half-yearly result even more spectacular is the fact that Bithumb’s security was breached by a hacker group in June 2018, resulting in a theft of $ 30 million USD worth of crypto tokens. In order to compensate for the theft, Bithumb covered the amount through its own reserves and transferred other investor’s crypto holding to a secured offline wallet.
It is worth pointing out that a number of South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges have been hacked in recent past. In the month of June, crypto platform Coinrail’s security was compromised, which resulted in a theft of $ 40 million USD worth of altcoins.
Bithumb Going through a Slump
In Janurary this year, police and governmental tax bodies raided several South Korea based crypto exchanges for tax evasion. Bithumb was one of the digital assets platforms raided, although later it was announced that the digital token platform was not involved in any malicious practice.
However, in the month of June again the exchange was hit with a $ 28 million USD bill for back taxes. Series of government actions interrupting the exchange’s operations has definitely had an impact on its performance.
It should come as no surprise that once one of the top 5 crypto exchanges in the world, Bithumb is now not even among the top 10 globally. During crypto market’s bullish run early this year, Bithumb boasted of a trading volume of $ 2.5 billion worth of crypto tokens. The exchange has taken a harsh beating since then, as the current trading volume is $ 78.6 million, not a small amount by any chance, but still just a shadow of its former self.
It remains to be seen what Q3 and Q4 hold for Bithumb, as then the crypto enthusiasts will be better equipped to make annual performance comparison.
