A major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange mistakenly transferred approximately 40 billion dollars’ worth of bitcoin to customer accounts, representing one of the largest accidental financial disbursements in digital asset history.
A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally gave away more than $40bn (£32bn) worth of bitcoin, briefly making customers multi-millionaires. The exchange had intended to issue a small reward of 2,000 won ($1.37) but mistakenly credited users with 2,000 bitcoins instead.
Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, confirmed the incident occurred due to an internal error rather than external security breaches or system vulnerabilities. The exchange successfully recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins that were erroneously distributed to users.
In a statement released on Friday, the company emphasised that customer assets and platform security remained intact throughout the incident. Chief Executive Officer Lee Jae-won addressed the matter directly, stating the organisation would use this occurrence as an opportunity to reinforce operational protocols and prioritise customer confidence over expansion objectives.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation. The regulator announced it would conduct a thorough review of the incident, with any indication of misconduct triggering formal investigations. Bithumb has committed to full cooperation with regulatory authorities.
The exchange has outlined several remedial measures in response to the error. All customers who were actively using the platform at the time of the incident will receive compensation of 20,000 won, equivalent to approximately 13.66 dollars. Trading fees will be waived as part of the company’s efforts to restore user trust.
Looking forward, Bithumb plans to enhance its verification systems and deploy artificial intelligence technology to identify abnormal transaction patterns. The incident is expected to intensify discussions around stricter regulatory oversight in the financial technology sector, particularly within cryptocurrency markets.
This case bears similarities to a previous banking error in April 2024, when Citigroup inadvertently credited 81 trillion dollars to a customer account instead of the intended 280 dollars. That mistake, which resulted from two employees failing to identify the discrepancy during processing, was reversed within hours after a third staff member detected the error.
