The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has initiated a significant fee-free campaign to aggressively increase its market share.
Bithumb announced on Thursday that it will implement zero trading fees on 200 cryptocurrencies within its Korean Won market, starting at 6:00 pm KST (09:00 am UTC) and continuing until further notice.
Strategic Shift to Attract Users
Although trades involving these fee-exempt tokens will contribute to Bithumb’s membership tiers, they will not earn trading points or maker rewards.
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This initiative is distinct from previous ones as it is automatically applied without the need for separate registration. Bithumb conducted similar fee-free campaigns in 2023 and 2024, but participants were required to register for a coupon.
Market analysts interpret this move as a strategic attempt to increase its foothold in a competitive domestic landscape. While Upbit remains the largest exchange in the Korean Won market, Bithumb has been swiftly closing the gap, demonstrating notable growth in both trading volume and new users. This comprehensive fee-waiver strategy is perceived as a direct effort to attract users and hasten its quest for market leadership over Upbit.
As of September 16, data from Mobile Index indicates that Upbit held a market share of 59.08% last month, while Bithumb was at 33.42%, showing a reduction in the gap between the two. On September 9, Bithumb’s share peaked at 45.6%, narrowing the difference with Upbit (51.6%) to just six percentage points.
Just a year or two prior, this gap was significantly wider. In September 2023, Upbit commanded a commanding 60.7% market share compared to Bithumb’s 17.6%. Nonetheless, the challenger initiated a comeback that December, reaching 21.7% and climbing over 10 percentage points within a year to achieve 31.46% by November of the previous year.
How Bithumb Gained Ground on Upbit
Bithumb bolstered user engagement in 2024 through UI enhancements, game-mission incentives, auto-trading features, and Bitcoin dominance metrics. In 2025, it adopted a more assertive market strategy, introducing more new tokens than Upbit and focusing on competitively traded “value coins,” highlighting Bithumb’s ambition to close the market-share gap.
Upbit is also actively working to preserve its market dominance by significantly increasing its coin listings. However, it has not maintained its lead by being the first to list new coins but rather by following Bithumb’s initiative, adding many tokens that Bithumb listed earlier. This reactive method contrasts with Bithumb’s proactive and aggressive approach.
In South Korea, crypto accounts at domestic exchanges represent about 30% of the population. According to data from Kaiko Research, the South Korean Won (KRW) has emerged as the second most utilized fiat currency in cryptocurrency trading, trailing only the US dollar.
