Bithumb, South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has reported that its profits rose by a factor of 171 in 2017, according to Coindesk Korea.
Bithumb handles around $200 million in daily trading volume. It is owned by BTCKorea, which is a public company traded at the Korea Exchange.
According to the report published on the website of the country’s financial regulator, Bithumb generated ₩427.1 billion (approx. $399.7 million) in net profit last year. The equivalent figure for 2016 was ₩2.5 billion ($2.3 million). This is growth of 171 percent.
The money was made through operating fees – the exchange takes 0.15 percent of every order.
In addition to this figure, ₩90 billion ($8.4 million) was generated from non-operating income. This term refers to sources of profit and loss outside of the main business, which could mean investments, property and asset sales, rent, interest income, etc. A Bithumb representative said in a statement: “It is difficult to give a concrete explanation as a financial statement before it is finalized at the shareholders’ meeting held on March 30. I will give a detailed explanation after publishing the financial statements in mid-April.”
BTCKorea will release its own report within two weeks of that meeting.
The report mentions a broadcasting equipment manufacturer called Vident which has a 10.55 percent stake in BTCKorea. Vident itself is a company operating at a loss, but it can report that share as profitable.
The result is dramatic but not surprising given the popularity of the cryptocurrency industry in general . Cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea alone made $648 million in profit in 2017, an increase of more than 8,000 percent compared to 2016.
Coinbase, the biggest American cryptocurrency exchange, in (pre-tax) revenues in 2017, but the most remarkable rise is that of Binance.
Less than a year old, the cryptocurrency exchange from China is now the biggest in the world, handling $1.2 billion in daily trading volumes. It reported profits of $7.5 million within three months of opening, and $200 million in its second quarter of operation.
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