Bithumb's 2028 IPO: How to Track It Before You Can Buy

Bithumb, South Korea's second largest crypto exchange, confirmed on August 3 it is targeting a 2028 stock market listing with a preliminary listing review in 2027. You cannot buy shares yet, but you can build a tracking system now: monitor the listing timeline, watch comparable listed exchanges like Coinbase as a proxy, and set up alerts so you are ready when the IPO prices.

What did Bithumb actually announce about its 2028 IPO?

Bithumb confirmed on August 3 that it is targeting a 2028 initial public offering, with a preliminary listing review expected in 2027 following an internal corporate restructuring. This makes Bithumb one of the first major South Korean crypto exchanges to formally map a path to public markets.

The key detail for investors is the sequencing. A preliminary listing review in 2027 is a regulatory gate, not a guarantee, and the final IPO date can slip depending on market conditions and approval from Korean regulators.

Here is what the announcement gives you and what it does not:

• Confirmed: intent to list, a rough 2027 review and 2028 IPO window.
• Not confirmed: the exchange it will list on, the ticker, the valuation, or the share count.
• Uncertain: whether retail investors outside South Korea will get easy access at IPO.

That gap between announcement and tradeable shares is exactly where a tracking plan matters. You have roughly three years to prepare.

What is pre-IPO tracking and why does it matter here?

Pre-IPO tracking is the practice of monitoring a private company's listing timeline, its financials, and its publicly traded comparables before shares become available to buy. For a company like Bithumb that is years from listing, it lets you build conviction and a valuation anchor instead of scrambling on IPO day.

You cannot add Bithumb to a brokerage portfolio today because there is no ticker. What you can do is track it as a watchlist item and follow the metrics that will drive its eventual price.

The three things worth tracking now are:

1. The listing timeline, including the 2027 preliminary review and any regulatory filings.
2. Comparable listed exchanges like Coinbase, whose valuation multiples give you a reference range.
3. Korean crypto market volume, since Bithumb's revenue tracks domestic trading activity.

Which listed exchanges work as a Bithumb comparable?

The cleanest public proxy for Bithumb is Coinbase (COIN), the only large pure-play crypto exchange listed on a major US market. Coinbase went public in April 2021 and its revenue is dominated by trading fees, which is the same core model Bithumb runs.

No comparable is perfect, so it helps to watch a small basket rather than a single name. Each proxy captures a different slice of the exchange business.

How to use these proxies without over-fitting

Treat comparables as a valuation range, not a price prediction. Coinbase's revenue swings hard with crypto volume, so its price-to-sales multiple compresses in bull markets and expands in bear markets, and Bithumb will behave similarly.

A practical approach is to log COIN and BTC-USD in the same view so you can see how the exchange stock moves relative to the underlying asset. Our guide on tracking crypto and stocks together in one portfolio walks through exactly this kind of mixed watchlist.

How do you build a Bithumb watchlist before the ticker exists?

Add the comparables as real positions or watchlist entries today, then attach a note and alerts for the pending Bithumb listing. This turns a vague 2028 event into a monitored line item.

In practice your pre-IPO setup should include:

• A watchlist entry for COIN with a price alert near your target valuation zone.
• A BTC-USD tracker to gauge whether the crypto cycle favors or hurts exchange listings.
• A calendar reminder for 2027 when the preliminary listing review is expected.
• A note field recording the source and date of each timeline update.

If you are using PortfolioTrackr, you can keep these proxies and your existing holdings in one dashboard rather than checking three broker apps. That matters because exchange stocks, spot crypto, and your regular equities all react differently to the same news.

Connecting your real accounts first

Before you track a future listing, get your current portfolio synced so the new position slots in cleanly. Read-only connections let you pull balances without giving trade access, which is the safest setup for a long-horizon watchlist.

Our walkthrough on connecting your brokerage account to a portfolio tracker covers the read-only API approach, and the read-only Binance and Bybit dashboard guide shows the same idea for exchange balances.

What financial metrics should you monitor until 2027?

Track Bithumb's Korean trading volume, its restructuring progress, and Coinbase's quarterly revenue as the three data streams that will shape the eventual IPO price. These are the numbers analysts will use to set the valuation range.

The most useful recurring checks are:

• Korean spot volume, since Bithumb typically ranks second domestically behind Upbit and its fees scale with turnover.
• Coinbase quarterly reports, which since 2021 have given a live read on exchange revenue per unit of volume.
• Bitcoin cycle position, because IPO windows for crypto firms tend to open in bull phases and slam shut in downturns.

Watch the broader flow picture too. Sustained institutional demand, like the pattern covered in our piece on Bitcoin ETF inflow streaks, tends to lift exchange revenues and makes a 2028 listing more likely to land at a strong valuation.

What are the risks of tracking a pre-IPO exchange?

The biggest risk is that the IPO slips, shrinks, or never happens, which is common when a listing is announced three years out. A 2027 preliminary review is a checkpoint, and Korean regulators can extend the process or attach conditions.

Other risks worth building into your expectations:

• Access risk: foreign retail investors may face restrictions buying a Korea-listed IPO at launch.
• Valuation risk: a bear market in 2027 or 2028 could force a lower price or a delay.
• Structural risk: restructuring can change which entity actually lists, affecting what you would own.

Exchange-specific risk is not hypothetical. Our analysis of checking crypto exchange risk after Luno's layoffs shows why the health of the operator matters as much as the token prices it lists.

Watchlist versus spreadsheet: which is better for a 3-year hold?

A live tracker beats a spreadsheet for a multi-year pre-IPO watch because it updates prices, triggers alerts, and holds your proxies and real holdings in one view automatically. A spreadsheet goes stale the moment you stop maintaining it, which over three years is nearly guaranteed.

The trade-offs break down like this:

• Live prices: a tracker refreshes COIN and BTC-USD without manual entry.
• Alerts: price and date triggers fire even when you are not looking.
• Consolidation: proxies sit next to your actual portfolio, so context is never lost.

If you want the full breakdown, we compared both approaches in portfolio tracker versus spreadsheet for 2026, and the tooling options in our real data comparison of six trackers.

The bottom line

You cannot buy Bithumb shares until at least 2028, but you can build the tracking system now so you are ready the day it prices. Follow the 2027 preliminary listing review, monitor Coinbase (COIN) and BTC-USD as living comparables, and record every timeline update with its source.

Set up a watchlist, attach alerts, and keep those proxies beside your real holdings in one dashboard. That way the Bithumb IPO becomes a monitored decision instead of a rushed one.

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