Bithumb’s First-Half Operating Profit Plunges 83% as Crypto Losses Drive 108.7 Billion Won Net Loss

South Korean digital-asset exchange Bithumb’s operating profit fell more than 80% in the first half from a year earlier. Lower trading-fee revenue and losses from the disposal and valuation of digital assets pushed the company to a net loss of more than 100 billion won.

Bithumb said August 14 that it posted 168.8 billion won in revenue and 14.9 billion won in operating profit in the first half. Revenue fell 48% and operating profit declined 83% from the same period a year earlier, when Bithumb reported revenue of 329.2 billion won and operating profit of 90.1 billion won.

Bithumb swung to a net loss. The company reported a net loss of 108.7 billion won in the first half, compared with net profit of 55 billion won a year earlier.

Lower trading-fee revenue caused by weaker cryptocurrency trading directly affected results. Bithumb's trading-fee revenue fell 47% to 168.8 billion won in the first half from 323.5 billion won a year earlier.

Non-operating losses also weighed on net income. Non-operating expenses rose to 155.1 billion won in the first half, about 2.7 times the 57.3 billion won recorded a year earlier. The figure included 73.4 billion won in losses from the disposal of digital assets and 7.2 billion won in digital-asset valuation losses. Non-operating income, meanwhile, rose to 33.7 billion won from 27.1 billion won.

In the second quarter alone, revenue fell 35% from a year earlier to 86.3 billion won. Operating profit declined 44% to 12.1 billion won, while net loss was 21.8 billion won, marking a return to the red. Lower trading volumes reduced both revenue and operating profit, but Bithumb remained profitable at the operating level.