Digital X (Korbit)

Is Korbit safe?

Korbit, which now trades as Digital X, is a reasonably safe place for a Korean resident to hold won and coins. It has run since 2013 and calls itself Korea's first exchange, we found no theft from its wallets in thirteen years, its customer cash sits at Shinhan Bank, and it files audited accounts. The weak spots are compliance, where regulators fined it in 2025, and the fact that Korbit itself is small and losing money, which matters less for your coins than you might think because of how Korean law ring-fences them.

We score Korbit 73/100, level with Coinone and above Upbit (68), which has lost coins to hackers twice.

A new owner in 2026

Korbit opened in 2013 and spent most of its life inside the Nexon group: NXC, Nexon's holding company, owned 45.4% and an affiliate another 14.9%. SK Planet held about 31.6%. In July 2026 Mirae Asset Consulting, part of the Mirae Asset financial group, bought 91.73% at 4,961 won a share and took its stake to 97.15% two days later, according to Korbit's filing on DART.

The new owner renamed the company Digital X in August 2026 and switched the app, website and domain (now digitalx.miraeasset.com) to the new name on 16 September 2026, according to Digital Daily and MTN. If you get messages about "moving" your Korbit account because of the name change, treat them as phishing; the account carries over as it is.

A large financial group as owner is a plus for a loss-making exchange. Korbit lost 15.8 billion won in 2025 after a 9.8 billion won profit in 2024, and its equity fell to 38 billion won. Under Korean law your won and coins should not be part of the company's assets, but a stronger parent makes an orderly outcome more likely if things go wrong.

Security: a quiet record

Korea has a long record of exchange hacks. Youbit went bankrupt after two thefts in 2017, Coinrail and Bithumb lost coins in 2018, and Upbit was hit in 2019 and again in 2025. We found no comparable incident at Korbit. A 2018 Kyunghyang Shinmun history of Korean exchange hacks does not mention it.

That keeps Korbit's security score at 85: thirteen years without a reported wallet theft is good evidence, not proof.

What Korean law protects, and one gap

Since 19 July 2024 the Virtual Asset User Protection Act has required exchanges to keep customer cash at a bank, keep customer coins apart from their own, hold the same coins in the same amounts that customers own, and carry insurance or a reserve against hacks and outages.

Korbit's 2025 audit report shows how it applies the rules:

One note in the accounts deserves attention. The company says customer coins are stored in its electronic wallets mixed with its own coins, so there is a risk that customer coins cannot be returned in a bankruptcy or after a hack. The law requires separate records, not separate wallets, and the reserve covers only about 1.2% of customer crypto. That is why custody scores 70 rather than the mid-70s.

The FIU fine

Korbit's exchange registration came up for renewal in 2024, and the Financial Intelligence UnitFinancial intelligence unitA national government agency that receives reports of suspicious transactions from banks and crypto firms and analyses them for money laundering.More in the glossary inspected it from 16 to 29 October 2024. It found:

• about 12,800 failures in customer identity checks, such as accepting blurred or photocopied ID and blank addresses;
• about 9,100 cases where customers whose checks were incomplete were still allowed to trade;
• 19 transfers with three foreign exchanges not registered in Korea;
• 655 new listings, including NFTs, made without a money-laundering risk assessment.

On 31 December 2025 the FIU issued an institutional warning and a 2.73 billion won fine, with a caution for the chief executive and a reprimand for the reporting officer. Korbit paid 2.18 billion won on 12 January 2026, a reduced amount for early payment, according to Blockmedia. Its registration renewal was accepted in February 2026.

Compared with its rivals the case is small. Upbit had about 8.6 million breaches and a three-month partial suspension, and Bithumb six months. Korbit had no suspension. Legal record still scores 65, because the breaches were basic and repeated.

How to use Korbit more safely

1. Turn on OTP in an authenticator app and ignore calls claiming to be from Korbit, the police or the FSS.
2. Register withdrawal addresses in advance and send a small test first.
3. Keep long-term holdings in your own wallet. With customer coins in shared wallets and a reserve of about 1%, a large theft would not be fully covered.
4. Watch for changes after the Mirae Asset takeover, such as a new bank partner or a merger, and read any new terms.

How we scored it

Security history (85) is Korbit's strongest factor, with no known wallet theft. Licensing (65) reflects a strict Korean regime but no licence abroad, and legal record (65) the 2025 FIUFinancial intelligence unitA national government agency that receives reports of suspicious transactions from banks and crypto firms and analyses them for money laundering.More in the glossary fine. Custody (70) is held back by shared wallets and a small reserve, and reserves (72) by the lack of any proof of reservesProof of reservesA report in which a crypto exchange shows that it holds enough coins to cover all customer balances, ideally checked by an outside firm.More in the glossary beyond audited accounts.