South Korea's Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange said it unintentionally sent 620,000 Bitcoins, currently worth more than 40 billion USD, to customers and blocked transactions and withdrew money for 695 affected users within 35 minutes after the error occurred on February 6.
According to local reports, Bithumb intended to send about 2,000 won (1.37 USD) per customer as part of the promotion program, but unintentionally transferred about 2,000 Bitcoins per user.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers due to confusion occurring during the distribution of this promotional event," Bithumb said in a statement on February 7.
The platform said it has recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly sent Bitcoin and will use its own assets to fully compensate for the lost money in the incident.
The platform admitted that the error caused a "strong fluctuation" in the price of Bitcoin on the platform when some people accepted to sell tokens, and said it had controlled the situation within 5 minutes.
The platform's chart shows that Bitcoin prices fell sharply by 17% on the platform at the end of the day 6. 2. The platform emphasized that this incident "is not related to cyberattacks or security violations from outside".
Bitcoin prices have fallen sharply this week, wiping out the profits made thanks to US President Donald Trump's victory in the November 2024 presidential election.
