Bithumb lending service sees $19.5M in monthly forced liquidations

Users of Bithumb's crypto lending service are facing forced liquidations averaging 26 billion won ($19.5 million) per month, the Dong-A Ilbo reported on March 5. The report cites data Bithumb provided to Lee In-young, a Democratic Party lawmaker on the National Assembly's National Policy Committee. According to the figures, a total of 233.8 billion won ($175.8 million) across 33,102 cases was liquidated between the service's launch on June 16, 2025, and Feb. 8, 2026. This amounts to a monthly average of 26 billion won from 3,678 cases. During the same period, rival South Korean exchange Upbit recorded a monthly average of 300 million won ($226,000) in liquidations from 21 cases. Crypto lending services allow users to borrow digital assets from an exchange by providing their own crypto holdings as collateral. If the value of the collateral drops below a certain threshold, the exchange automatically sells the assets to recover its principal and interest in a process known as forced liquidation.