South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb Launches a Decentralized Exchange

On October 15,  2018, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced they are launching their first official decentralized exchange, dubbed Bithumb DEX. The Korean crypto giant Bithumb is said to leverage OneRoot R1 protocol to increase the overall efficiency of the decentralized exchange.

The Era of Decentralized Exchanges

The noteworthy crypto player in Korea, Bithumb has seen an exciting year of highs and lows. Earlier in June, the exchange had reported that it had lost $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies to hackers. Despite this setback, the exchange quickly managed to restore customers’ funds by dipping into their resources. Soon after that, the exchange stopped registering new users owing to banking regulations introduced by the Korean government.

This week, the company said they were launching their first official decentralized exchange, Bithumb DEX. The official press release stated:

“Bithumb DEX was launched by Hong Kong-based blockchain & fintech BGEX Ltd. Working with blockchain service innovator OneRoot Network, we are committed to discovering and listing more valuable cryptocurrencies.”

The R1 technology will be used to separate order matching and order execution – will increase the efficiency of the exchange’s operations. Not just that, but the liquidity and the order data of the platform will be shared with other exchanges that support the R1 protocol, which will mean a proportionately bigger liquidity pool.

Airdrop Event and Free Transactions

Expressing joy of launching the decentralized exchange, Bithumb announced two events –  free transaction fee event and an airdrop event.

According to the exchange’s official website, the free transaction period will last this whole month starting from October to November 2018. However, investors will need to pay the gas fee to transact on the Ethereum network.

On the other hand, for the airdrop event, the exchange announced that around 500 ETH or $100,000 would be distributed. The airdrop period would last from October 15 to October 30, 2018, and coins would be distributed to 1000 traders who transacted the maximum in these two weeks. One caveat is that traders are required to trade more than 1 ETH in trade volume for one of the following coins – DENT, INS, POA20, RNT, WTC, to be eligible for the event.

After the completion of the airdrop event, the winners will be announced on November 1. Also, the payment date for the airdrop event will also be published on the same day, and the airdrop coin will be randomly distributed which can include, DENT, INS, POA20, RNT, WTC, among others.

It is important to note that recently, the exchange was bought off by a consortium for $350 million, which is headed by a plastic surgeon. However, it is unclear how much the acquisition would affect the day-to-day operations of the exchange.

What’s your take on Bithumb’s decentralized exchange? Let us know your views in the comments section.