SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb sold more than a third of its interest to Singapore-based BK Global Consortium for 400 billion won or $353 million, according to local media outlet Yonhap news.
BTC Korea Holdings, which owned a 75.99 percent stake in Bithumb, has agreed to sell 50 percent plus 1 share of the ownership to blockchain investment consortium BK Global, headed by plastic surgeon Kim Byung Gun.
The acquisition is over 38 percent stake in Bithumb, valued more than 1 trillion or $880 million.
Seoul-based Bithumb had revealed plans recently to expand its operations to Japan and Thailand, after seeking regulatory approval from the Financial Services Agency of Japan and Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It has already opened an office in London.
In June, the exchange lost coins worth around $30 million in hacking, following which it stopped all trading temporarily.
Bithumb recently also decided to ban trading with investors in eleven countries including North Korea, Iran, and Iraq from May 28 in a bid to prevent its platform to be used for money laundering activities and international terror financing.
With an average 24-hour trading volume of about $358 million, Bithumb is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea. Its profit increased 171 times in 2017 than it did in 2016.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX