There has been a new development in the Bithumb incident last Friday, where 60 trillion won worth of Bitcoin were mistakenly sent out. Although 99.7% has been recovered, 125 Bitcoins (worth approximately 13 billion won) have not yet been returned, and more than 80 people have already cashed out the mistakenly sent assets. Financial authorities have announced that they will intervene in the investigation.
(Previous context: Bithumb makes a nuclear-level blunder by airdropping 620,000 bitcoins to users! Fortunately, 99.7% has been recovered )
(Background information: Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest exchange, is considering a US IPO. Can it shake off the shadow of scandal and reclaim its top spot? )
Last Friday evening at 7 PM, Bithumb made a major blunder when distributing promotional prizes. The prize money, which should have been 620,000 Korean won, was mistakenly distributed as "620,000 Bitcoins." This massive error, worth approximately 60 trillion Korean won (about 1.4 trillion New Taiwan Dollars), instantly made 249 users "millionaires" and sent shockwaves through the entire cryptocurrency market.
According to an exclusive SBS report , Bithumb's internal control system detected the anomaly approximately 20 minutes after the incident and immediately froze the trading and withdrawal functions of the relevant accounts within 35 minutes.
This swift response allowed Bithumb to recover 99.7% of the mistakenly sent assets on the same day, demonstrating its crisis management capabilities. A user revealed in a community forum:
"Suddenly someone posted that they received 2,000 bitcoins in their wallet—that's over 200 billion Korean won!"
13 billion won has not yet been recovered.
Although most of the assets have been recovered, 125 bitcoins (worth approximately 13 billion Korean won) remain unreturned. More concerningly, over 80 people had already cashed out the mistakenly sent bitcoins before the freeze.
- Approximately 3 billion won has been transferred to a personal bank account.
- Approximately 10 billion won was used to purchase other cryptocurrencies.
Whether these cash-out activities constitute unjust enrichment, or even involve criminal liability, will likely become the focus of subsequent legal disputes.
Bithumb proposes a compensation plan
To appease users, Bithumb has announced a compensation plan. First, if users sold Bitcoin and made a profit before the freeze, they can retain the entire price difference and receive an additional 10% compensation. Second, all affected users will enjoy a one-week reduction in transaction fees.
This move is seen as Bithumb's attempt to turn the crisis into an opportunity to retain customers, but it also reflects the exchange's sincerity in remedying its internal control oversight.
Financial authorities announced their intervention.
South Korean financial authorities have stated they will investigate the incident. This blunder not only exposed loopholes in Bithumb's operational procedures but also reignited concerns about the internal control mechanisms of cryptocurrency exchanges.
For Bithumb, which is actively seeking a US IPO, this incident is undoubtedly a wake-up call—while pursuing scale expansion, strengthening internal risk control will be an unavoidable issue.
