Bithumb has denied reports that it helped Kim Byung-ki, an under-fire senior South Korean lawmaker, attack the crypto exchange’s closest rival Upbit in parliament last year.

A Bithumb employee provided Kim’s aides with materials unfavourable to Dunamu around the time of a parliamentary audit, reported KBS, South Korea’s biggest broadcast network.

The broadcaster said it had seen chat app messages that confirmed a Bithumb employee met a Kim aide in person to discuss the materials.

The aide previously told police Kim had attacked Upbit in parliament after securing an internship for his son at Bithumb in November 2024. But KBS says its evidence shows a Bithumb employee was complicit in Kim’s attacks.

“All of our hiring has been carried out in a transparent and fair manner,” Bithumb in statements to KBS and South Korean media outlet Joongang Economic News.

The same former aide last month told police he had been told to “go on the offensive against [Upbit’s operator] Dunamu” after his son secured the job.

Kim raised questions about Upbit at a National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee meeting in February 2025, when he chastised the firm’s “monopoly-like status.”

Kim also hit out at Upbit’s response to the Terra ecosystem crash of May 2022, noting that it was the last domestic exchange to suspend trading in Terra coins.

Dunamu meeting alleged

The same aide also told police Kim had told him to help “force the closure of Bithumb’s competitor Dunamu.”