Glitch And Immediate Impact
A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally sent more than $40bn (£32bn) worth of bitcoin to customers, briefly turning some users into multimillionaires. The platform, Bithumb, said it had intended to give customers a small cash reward of 2,000 won, or about $1.37, but instead credited 2,000 bitcoins to accounts on Friday.
Bithumb said it realized the mistake quickly and moved to limit the damage. The company restricted trading and withdrawals for 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the glitch and said it recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins that were mistakenly sent.
Company Response And Regulator Review
In a statement on Friday, Bithumb said the incident was not linked to external hacking or a security breach and said there was no problem with its system security or customer asset management. The company apologized for the error and said it would cooperate with regulators.
South Korea’s financial regulator said in an emergency meeting on Saturday that it would look into the incident. The Financial Supervisory Service said any sign of illegal activity would lead to a formal investigation.
Bithumb chief executive Lee Jae-won said the company would treat the incident as a lesson and would prioritize customer trust and peace of mind over external growth.
Compensation And System Changes
The exchange said it plans to pay 20,000 won, or about $13.66, in compensation to all customers who were using the platform at the time of the error and will waive trading fees, among other measures. Bithumb also said it would improve its verification systems and introduce AI tools to detect abnormal transactions.
Wider Context Of Financial Errors
The incident is expected to prompt discussion about tighter controls in finance. In April 2024, Citigroup mistakenly credited $81 trillion instead of $280 to a customer’s account. Two employees failed to spot the error before it was processed, and the bank reversed the transaction within hours after a third employee identified the mistake, according to the Financial Times.
Featured image credits: Pexels
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