Bithumb’s Biggest Shareholder Pulls Plug on Lawsuit

Bithumb Exchange Legal

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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June 26, 2023 06:53 EDT

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In a dramatic turnaround, the largest single shareholder of South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has pulled out of a lawsuit that could have threatened the very existence of the domestic market-leading platform.

Vidente, which in November last year sealed a deal to purchase a 34.24% stake in Bithumb from holding company Bithumb Holdings, had decided to sue the latter after news broke in December that the exchange had been served a whopping USD 67 million tax bill.

South Korean tax authorities made an unprecedented move to tax transactions carried out by Bithumb’s foreign customers – serving the bill to the exchange itself, rather than the platform’s customers.

Per Chosun and Digital Today, Vidente believed Bithumb Holdings withheld information about the possibility of being hit with a tax bill of this size prior to its acquisition deal. Vidente suffered a massive drop in share prices after the Bithumb tax news story broke – and was looking to recoup damages from Bithumb Holdings.

However, it appears that Bithumb Holdings was successful with an eleventh-hour bid to halt legal proceedings.

Digital Today quotes a Vidente official as stating that a group comprising the Bithumb Holdings CEO and representatives of individual Bithumb shareholders has stumped up a USD 10.8 million guarantee.

Vidente also stated that Bithumb’s operators had agreed to an out-of-court settlement, and will indeed pay Vidente back for damages caused to the latter’s share prices.

Bithumb has been struggling with ownership-related issues after BK Consortium, the Singapore-based plastic surgery company that bought the platform in 2018 for USD 354 million, defaulted on payment last year.