Upbit Review

Our verdict: in our view, Upbit offers a low-cost spot trading option for residents of South Korea who trade cryptocurrencies using Korean won. Based in Seoul, Dunamu Inc. operates Upbit. The exchange lists 360 cryptocurrency assets, and fees are the aspect we rate most highly.

Upbit is suitable if:

• You trade with Korean won and wish to pay 0.05% per normal order, inclusive of VAT.
• You desire access to an extensive spot list, featuring 360 cryptocurrency assets across markets for won, bitcoin, and tether.
• You prefer an exchange that provides a daily publication of its reserve ratio for each asset, and an accounting firm's check.

Upbit might not be the right fit if you are new to crypto and want a simple start: beginner friendliness is the criterion we rate lowest for Upbit, and we rate Coinbase and Bitpanda higher for beginners. If you live in the US, start with our list of exchanges for US customers.

Upbit at a glance

• Operator: Dunamu Inc., Seoul, South Korea (business registration number 119-86-54968), CEO Oh Kyung-suk
• Founded: Dunamu in 2012. The Upbit exchange launched in 2017
• Registration: reported virtual asset service provider with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), registration number 2021-01
• Spot fees on the won (KRW) market: 0.05% maker and 0.05% taker for normal orders, VAT included
• Spot fees on the BTC and USDT markets: 0.25% in the schedule, cut to 0.05% by a current promotion
• Crypto assets: 360, on 865 spot markets
• Minimum won deposit: 5,000 KRW
• Won withdrawal: 1,000 KRW each
• Bitcoin withdrawal: 0.0002 BTC each, a fixed amount set by Upbit
• Products: spot trading, staking, recurring buys, coin lending and an NFT marketplace
• Apps: iOS and Android. 2.57 of 5 from 7,380 ratings on the Korean App Store, 3.5 of 5 from 35.6K reviews on Google Play

Who can use Upbit

The exchange at upbit.com is built for residents of South Korea. The terms allow Upbit to turn down applications from non-residents of South Korea, foreign corporations, minors, as well as nationals, residents, or visitors of countries deemed high risk under Korean anti-money-laundering regulations. Signing up requires identity verification through mobile phone, and depositing or withdrawing won necessitates a real-name bank account linked to your Upbit account.

Due to these sign-up rules, Upbit is unavailable in the US, and neither the Korean Upbit app nor the Upbit Global app appears on the US App Store. If you reside in the US, consider our list of exchanges for US customers and the alternatives mentioned below.

Upbit operates distinct exchanges in Southeast Asia, each under its own company, with separate terms and fees. Upbit Singapore Pte. Ltd. holds a Major Payment Institution license for digital payment token services from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This review focuses on the Korean exchange.

What Upbit offers

Upbit functions as a spot exchange with markets in won (KRW), bitcoin (BTC), and tether (USDT). According to Upbit, it opted not to launch leverage products due to their risks, meaning there are no futures, perpetuals, options, or margin trading available.

Beyond trading, Upbit offers staking, a recurring-buy plan that buys a set amount from your won balance on a schedule, and an NFT marketplace. Its coin-lending service lets verified users borrow more than 25 crypto assets against won, BTC, ETH or USDT collateral for up to 30 days at 0.05% a day; first you have to pass a lending course and test from DAXA, and a position is repaid by force once the lending ratio reaches 95%. In our view, this is borrowing against collateral, not a trading product.

For larger clients, Dunamu introduced Upbit Custody in 2025 and Upbit Biz, a digital asset management service for institutions and companies, at the end of 2025.

What Upbit costs: a worked example

If you want to buy bitcoin with won and transfer it to your wallet:

• Deposit won from a linked bank account: free, with a minimum of 5,000 KRW.
• Buy BTC on the BTC/KRW market with a normal order: 0.05%, regardless of whether your order rests on the order book or fills immediately, VAT included. A reserved order costs 0.139%.
• Withdraw the BTC to your own wallet: 0.0002 BTC per withdrawal, a fixed amount set by Upbit. Transfers between two Upbit accounts incur no charge.
• Withdraw won back to your bank: 1,000 KRW per withdrawal.

Two rules influence the withdrawal stage. Under the travel rule, transfers of 1 million KRW or more can only move to and from exchanges on Upbit's list, as well as to private wallets you have verified. Transfers to exchanges that have not reported to the Korean regulator are blocked regardless of the amount, and Upbit's blocked list includes KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, and WEEX. Daily crypto withdrawals are limited to 100 million KRW without two-channel authentication and 5 billion KRW with it.

For reference, Kraken Pro's entry tier charges 0.40% for makers and 0.80% for takers. Our fee comparison table lists the spot fees of the exchanges we review side by side.

Security and regulation

Registration and supervision

Dunamu is a reported virtual asset service provider with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU). Its report was initially accepted in October 2021 and renewed in December 2025.

In February 2025, KoFIU imposed a three-month partial business suspension on Dunamu, citing violations including the prohibition on transactions with unreported virtual asset service providers. The order prevents customers who register during the suspension from moving crypto in or out. Dunamu contested the order in court. According to Dunamu's half-year report, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled fully in Dunamu's favor at first instance, with the appeal pending, and the order is suspended until 30 days after the appeal ruling. KoFIU also fined Dunamu in December 2025 for breaches related to customer due diligence and transaction restriction duties, and Dunamu has lodged an objection.

Dunamu currently has no parent company, but it plans a share exchange to become a wholly owned subsidiary of NAVER Financial. Dunamu's latest filing shifts the exchange date to March 31, 2027.

Customer money and reserves

Upbit keeps customers' won deposits apart from its own funds at a bank, as the Virtual Asset User Protection Act requires, and pays interest on them.

Each day, Upbit discloses a holding ratio for each crypto asset. BDO Sunghyun Accounting Corporation also evaluates Upbit's reserves under agreed-upon procedures, a set of checks rather than a formal audit. In its latest report, it noted that Upbit held about 103.64% of the won value of what it owes customers in 25 crypto assets.

Incidents

Upbit's own notices describe two hot-wallet thefts:

• November 2019: 342,000 ETH, worth about 58 billion KRW, left Upbit's Ethereum hot wallet for an unknown address. Upbit said it would replace the ETH with company assets so that customers were not harmed, and it moved all hot-wallet assets to cold wallets.
• November 2025: About 44.5 billion KRW in Solana-network assets exited a hot wallet, with about 38.6 billion KRW belonging to customers. Upbit covered all customer losses using its own assets. It found a vulnerability that allowed private keys to be derived from its public wallet transactions and began reconstructing its wallet system. Upbit says its cold wallets were not affected.

Who should not use Upbit

• Active traders seeking leverage products: our list of exchanges for day trading examines exchanges built for them.
• Those needing assistance and documentation in languages other than Korean or English.

Alternatives to Upbit

Upbit receives its lowest rating for beginner friendliness, suggesting first-time buyers have better options:

• Coinbase is accessible in the US across all states, and we rate it higher for beginners.
• Kraken serves US customers except residents of New York and Maine, and we rate it higher for beginners.
• Bitpanda is authorized under MiCA by the FMA in Austria, and serves readers in Europe; we rate it higher for beginners.

Our Coinbase vs Kraken comparison can help you compare the two US options.

How we rated Upbit

We score every exchange on six criteria, explained on our How we rate page. For Upbit, we rate fees highest and beginner friendliness lowest.

FAQ

Is Upbit safe?

Upbit's operator, Dunamu, is a reported virtual asset service provider with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit. Upbit keeps won deposits apart from its own funds and publishes daily reserve ratios and an accounting firm's reserve check. Against that stand two hot-wallet thefts, in 2019 and 2025, for which Upbit pledged company assets, and two KoFIU sanctions from 2025 that Dunamu is contesting. In our view, the two hot-wallet thefts weigh more than the reserve reports.

What are Upbit's fees?

For the won market, normal orders incur a fee of 0.05% for both makers and takers, while reserved orders cost 0.139%, VAT inclusive. The BTC and USDT markets list a fee of 0.25%, but currently charge 0.05% due to a promotion. Upbit does not have volume-based tiers.

What is Upbit's KRW withdrawal fee?

The withdrawal fee for transferring won to your bank from Upbit is 1,000 KRW per transaction.

What is Upbit's TRX withdrawal fee?

Withdrawing TRX via the Tron network costs a fixed 0.9 TRX, which also represents the minimum withdrawal amount. Each coin and network has a specific fee, as listed in Upbit's withdrawal fee schedule.

Is Upbit available in the US?

No, Upbit's terms allow it to refuse applications from non-residents of South Korea, and its apps are not available on the US App Store. Readers in the US can consider starting with Coinbase or Kraken instead.