Bithumb Meta Rebrands to Bithumb Partners with Focus on Investments
Date: 2025-01-06 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
The name and strategy change is a major step in the company’s evolution. The rebranding significantly changes its operations, focusing on investment management and creating a new division within Bithumb. In Q4 2024, the rebranding was completed and a new funding of KRW 1 billion (approximately $680,099 USD) was added, increasing the total capital of the 100% Bithumb-owned subsidiary to approximately $2 million. In 2023, investors such as LG CNS, CJ Olive Networks, and SK Square officially pulled out of Bithumb Meta as NFT and metaverse projects failed to meet expectations.
Bithumb Partners will now be officially led by external recruit Im Tae-seong, while the management of the company will be entirely provided by Bithumb employees, including key positions in the directorates and audits. This has resulted in the dissolution and departure of the core management team of Bithumb Meta.
Bithumb Partners will be a short-term investment vehicle focused on stock and bond deals, using Bithumb's internal funds. Unlike Bithumb Investment, which mainly deals with external investments, Bithumb Partners will focus on managing the company's internal assets. Bithumb's historical investments include convertible bonds in KOSDAQ-listed companies such as Iwin, Barunson, and T&R Biofab. For now, Bithumb Partners will continue to focus on ongoing short-term investments and may expand its activities to a strategic or financial investor.
The rebranding and creation of Bithumb Partners is in line with the original idea put forward in the first half of 2023 to create an investment company that would manage assets and real estate, including rental operations. However, the new division represents a more streamlined process than the original concept.
“We transformed Bithumb Meta into Bithumb Partners to simplify operations and focus on managing assets such as stocks and bonds, as well as short-term financial investments. Creating a new company from scratch and liquidating the old one would have taken too much time,” a Bithumb spokesperson noted.
In addition, the move coincides with Bithumb’s announcement of its intention to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025. The creation of a subsidiary with an investment focus is part of a broader effort to streamline the company’s corporate structure and financial operations ahead of the IPO.
