South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange Bithumb Has Made $35 Million in 2018 Despite June Hack

Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange platform has reportedly seen a mid-year profit of $35 million. The virtual currency exchange made the news in June 2018 after suffering a $30 million hack which led to severe downtime on the platform. In the aftermath of the hack, Bithumb has lost its perch in the top ten cryptocurrency exchange platforms according to daily trading volume.

Bithumb Half-Year Performance

According to the local news outlet Yonhap, Bithumb was able to earn more than 39.34 billion won ($35 million) in revenue for the first six months of 2018. This earnings figure was based on a thorough analysis of the company’s mid-year report published on the Electronic Disclosure System of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Bithumb’s revenue before deduction stood at $270 million with a gross operating profit of $194 million. In 2017, the company’s net profit was $380 million. Based on the mid-year performance, it seems unlikely that Bithumb will exceed 2017’s figures.

Part of the reduction in profit has to do with the decline in the cryptocurrency market since the start of 2018. The total market capitalization has plummeted from $800 billion to around $200 billion. Coin prices have dipped by more than an average of 50 percent across the market.

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Further Down the Cryptocurrency Exchange Ranking

Apart from declining profits, Bithumb has also slid down the pecking order of cryptocurrency exchange platforms since it was hacked in June 2018. At the time, the South Korea-based crypto broker was ranked seventh based on 24-hour trading volume. Currently, Bithumb is out of the top ten and is ranked 19th with a daily trading volume of about $60 million.

In June 2018, suspected hackers stole about $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies from the platform’s hot wallet. Before this incident, Coinrail, another virtual currency exchange also suffered a cyber attack leading to the theft of coins from its wallet as well.

Less than a fortnight after the story broke, Bithumb announced that it had recovered $14 million worth of the stolen cryptocurrency. The platform has recently begun unfreezing deposits and withdrawals for some of the cryptos in its trading catalog as it tries to get back to normal service. Earlier in the month, Bithumb unfroze operations for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP among others.