The top cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Bithumb, has come under fire from a lawmaker for allegedly using “dark patterns” to charge users more than what is stated.
A zero-fee trading promotion was promoted by Bithumb between October 2022 and January 2023. Democratic Party senator Kang Jun-hyeon’s study, however, showed that only roughly 25% of transactions were fee-free, with the remaining 75% subject to a trading fee of 0.25%.
Bithumb Collected Fee Without Users Knowing
Bithumb collected about KRW 25 billion ($18.1 million) in fees from users who were not aware of the opt-in need for fee exemptions as a result of this disparity.
Many users were confused and lost money as a result of the complicated registration process and poor messages.
The incident has drawn a lot of criticism, and many people have called on Bithumb to take responsibility. Concerns regarding fee transparency and adherence to consumer protection regulations have prompted the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea to call on Bithumb and other significant exchanges.
The necessity for cryptocurrency exchanges to continue being transparent in their advertising campaigns and fee schedules in order to build community confidence is highlighted by this circumstance.
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Bithumb’s Zero Fee Scam: What Happened?
People’s Power party member Kim Jae-sup disclosed that, according to statistics provided by the Financial Supervisory Service, Bithumb received 672.79 billion won in total fees from February 2023 to February 2024.
At the time, Bithumb promoted the “lowest commission in Korea,” which was 0.04%. However, Kim noted that the average commission rate charged to real users was 0.051% in practice.
Consequently, the congressman stressed, consumers had to pay an extra 140.91 billion won.
Bithumb Returns to Profitability
With a noteworthy 265.4% growth in sales year over year, Bithumb has made a spectacular comeback in 2024 and is once again profitable.
The cryptocurrency exchange’s operating profit in 2024 was 130.7 billion won, or about $90.1 million, according to data from South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service.
This represents a significant improvement over the 14.8 billion won operating deficit in 2023. An even more remarkable increase occurred in the exchange’s net profit, which increased by 565.8% to 161.8 billion won (about $111.2 million).
Interestingly, the profit number makes market users further suspicious about the crypto exchange’s operations.