A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally sent customers more than 40 billion dollars in bitcoin. The mistake briefly turned some users into multimillionaires. The company had planned to send a small reward of 2,000 won, worth about 1.37 dollars. Instead, it sent 2,000 bitcoins to customers on Friday.
The platform Bithumb apologised for the error. The company said it quickly noticed the mistake and recovered almost all the missing tokens. It restricted trading and withdrawals for 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the glitch.
Exchange Recovers Almost All Bitcoin
Bithumb said it recovered 99.7 percent of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent. The company stressed that the incident had nothing to do with hacking or security breaches. It said its system security and customer asset management remained safe.
South Korea’s financial regulator held an emergency meeting on Saturday and said it would review the incident. The Financial Supervisory Service said any sign of illegal activity would trigger formal investigations.
Company Promises Reforms and Compensation
Bithumb said it would cooperate with regulators. Chief executive Lee Jae-won said the company would prioritise customer trust and peace of mind over external growth.
The company plans to pay 20,000 won in compensation to all customers who used the platform at the time. It will also waive trading fees and introduce additional measures. Bithumb said it would improve verification systems and use artificial intelligence to detect abnormal transactions.
Incident Could Renew Regulatory Debate
The incident is likely to reignite debate about tighter financial regulation. In April 2024, Citigroup mistakenly credited 81 trillion dollars instead of 280 dollars to a customer account. Two employees failed to notice the error, but a third employee caught it and reversed the transaction within hours, according to the Financial Times.
