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Bithumb, which faced the biggest crisis in its history after an unprecedented incident involving the mistaken transfer of “60 trillion won worth of Bitcoin,” is engineering a dramatic turnaround by rolling out a bold move: zero trading fees across the board. The development is seen as a case where investor sentiment reacted more sensitively to immediate transaction cost savings than to structural distrust over ledger-based (database) trading.
According to cryptocurrency data platform CoinGecko, as of 8:00 p.m. the previous day, Bithumb’s domestic market share stood at 30.8%. This marks a dramatic rebound from the plunge to as low as 23.0% on February 7–8, immediately after the incident. It is the first time in about a month that Bithumb has regained a market share in the 30% range, since February 5 (31.0%).
By contrast, Upbit, which had long maintained its firm grip on the top spot, appears to be faltering under Bithumb’s offensive. Upbit’s market share, which reached 72.8% on February 7, tumbled to 54.9% by February 9, remaining in the 50% range for two consecutive days. It is highly unusual for Upbit’s dominant position—once strong enough to spark monopoly concerns—to show such visible cracks.
Industry observers say Bithumb’s “one week of zero fees on all tokens” card played a decisive role. As an apology and compensation for the erroneous transfer incident, Bithumb decided to waive trading fees on all digital assets (previously 0.25%) starting at midnight on February 9. Analysts note that the company’s willingness to absorb the pain of forgoing substantial fee revenue in order to retain departing customers has proven effective.
Investors’ preference for “practical gains” was also laid bare by the incident. Although the so-called “ghost Bitcoin” controversy dented trust in centralized exchanges (CEXs), actual traders largely treated it as a one-off mishap rather than a serious systemic risk. An industry official explained, “For investors, the benefit of ‘zero fees’ is a far stronger incentive than an exchange’s systemic stability,” adding, “We’ve confirmed a ‘migratory investor’ tendency, where capital moves en masse even with a slight reduction in fees.”
Meanwhile, the rise of Korbit, the third-largest exchange, is also notable. Korbit’s market share, which typically hovered around 1%, has exceeded 10% since February 8. This is attributed to a promotional event that offers rewards based on trading volume in USDC (Circle), a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin.
Ultimately, this episode has demonstrated that in the digital asset market, “incentives” can be just as powerful a weapon as “trust.” With customer outflows from Bithumb appearing limited, competition among exchanges over fees and marketing is expected to intensify further.
*Disclaimer: This article is provided for investment reference only, and no responsibility is assumed for any investment losses based on its content. The information herein should be interpreted solely for informational purposes.*