Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a major operational error today, causing a sudden and extreme price drop of approximately 16.58% in Bitcoin (BTC) on the platform, sparking market turmoil. Bithumb apparently mistakenly distributed 2,000 Bitcoins as 2,000 Korean Won (KRW) to hundreds of users as a user reward. At the time, 2,000 BTC was worth over 200 billion Korean Won. However, the official statement has not yet confirmed the incident.
2000 BTC were mistakenly sent as a "2000 Korean Won reward".
Screenshots circulating on social media and among users indicate that the incident was not caused by a market sell-off, but rather by an internal operational error at Bithumb. The exchange apparently mistakenly sent "2000 Bitcoins" as "2000 Korean Won (KRW)" points or reward amount to hundreds of users when distributing user rewards. At the time, 2000 BTC was worth over 200 billion Korean Won, making this an extremely serious error.
Users who received BTC immediately dumped their holdings, cashed out, and withdrew their shares.
KOL @_FORAB pointed out that the price spike that only occurred on Bithumb was caused by several users who received incorrect assets. Upon noticing the anomaly, they almost immediately chose to sell their BTC at market price, causing a sudden liquidity imbalance in the BTC/KRW trading pair and resulting in a sharp downward price spike. They then attempted to quickly withdraw, liquidate, and remove their assets.
As the chart shows, BTC on the Bithumb platform was instantly driven from its normal price to a level far below the market level in a very short period of time, resulting in a technical flash crash.
As of press time, Bithumb has not publicly responded to the incident. An unrelated exchange operator commented that it was absurd to mistakenly issue Bitcoin instead of Korean won in a marketing budget application. If the incident is true, based on past mistakes by other exchanges, they may attempt to reverse the transactions or freeze the relevant accounts. Bithumb, being a compliant exchange in South Korea, may also pursue legal action to recover the assets.
This article, which discusses the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange's alleged mistake of sending "2000 Bitcoins" instead of "2000 Korean Won" to hundreds of users, first appeared on ABMedia, a ABMedia .
