Kiwoom Securities' Bithumb stake acquisition is effectively dead. Internal sources say talks have become unviable to continue, partly because the deal became public and added pressure Kiwoom didn't want, and partly because of Bithumb's genuinely convoluted ownership structure. An internal source put it plainly, the complexity plus the burden of getting the deal done created an internal consensus this isn't worth pursuing. There's also apparently a real strategic split inside Kiwoom, one camp wants to focus resources on STO, another thinks strengthening existing pension, IB, and retail businesses matters more, and the anti-acquisition side specifically argued the extra burden of a Bithumb deal isn't worth it relative to those priorities. The ownership structure that reportedly scared them off is genuinely layered: founder Lee Jung-hoon and CEO Kim Byung-gun sit at the very top through SG Brain Technology Consulting (50% + 0.01% allied stake for Lee, 49.99% for Kim), which controls BTHMB Holdings Pte Ltd, which controls DAA, which controls Bithumb Holdings (73.56% of Bithumb), alongside Vident (10.22%), T Sciencetific (7.17%), and other shareholders (9.05%). That's four holding layers before you get to the actual exchange, and Vident specifically has its own separate delisting risk hanging over it from the embezzlement case flagged back in June. This doesn't kill Bithumb's ownership story entirely, other securities firms are reportedly still interested precisely because acquiring a licensed exchange gets you an instant user base and cross-sell surface with existing financial products. But the same structural complexity that pushed Kiwoom out remains the central obstacle for whoever tries next. Kiwoom's official response was a flat "cannot confirm."

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The Sandbox's bridge exploit minted unbacked SAND on Base and BSC. Upbit and Bithumb froze transfers under South Korea's user-protection rules, with Upbit also halting @ethereum deposits and withdrawals despite the chain being unaffected. Read more here:

🚨 BREAKING THE EXACT REASON WHY BITCOIN JUST PUMPED: BINANCE BOUGHT 5,311 BTC COINBASE BOUGHT 7,003 BTC BYBIT BOUGHT 7,686 BTC TRUMP INSIDER BOUGHT 2,790 BTC BITHUMB BOUGHT 5,107 BTC KRAKEN BOUGHT 3,794 BTC THIS WAS A COORDINATED MANIPULATION AHEAD OF THE U.S. MARKET OPEN!!