They Promised 2,000 Won, but Hundreds of Billions Landed... Massive Blunder at Bithumb

Mistaken payout and subsequent recovery due to employee error...total value estimated in the tens of trillions of won

An unprecedented incident occurred at domestic virtual asset exchange Bithumb, where a large amount of Bitcoin was mistakenly deposited due to an employee’s error.

They Promised 2,000 Won, but Hundreds of Billions Landed... Massive Blunder at Bithumb

AP Yonhap News

According to the virtual asset industry on the 7th, Bithumb attempted on the previous evening to pay prize money of between 2,000 won and 50,000 won per person through its own "Random Box" event, but mistakenly entered the unit and ended up granting at least 2,000 Bitcoins. Given that around that time one Bitcoin was priced in the upper 98 million won range, this means winners effectively received coins worth at least about 196 billion won per person.

About 700 users purchased Random Boxes through this event, and among them, roughly 240 people opened them and are reported to have received mostly 2,000 Bitcoins each into their personal wallets. The total value is estimated to be in the tens of trillions of won.

As some users immediately sold the Bitcoins they had received in this way, the price of Bitcoin on Bithumb alone plunged to 81.11 million won at about 7:30 p.m. the previous day.

Bithumb belatedly recognized the situation and, at around 7:40 p.m., blocked deposits and withdrawals and began recovery measures. In an apology posted early this morning, Bithumb stated, "An abnormal quantity of Bitcoin was granted to some customers," adding, "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers." It continued, "The market price returned to normal levels within five minutes, and the domino liquidation prevention system functioned properly, so there was no chain liquidation caused by the abnormal Bitcoin price."

Bithumb said, "This has nothing to do with external hacking or security breaches, and there are no issues with system security or the management of customer assets," adding, "We will share all follow-up measures in a transparent manner."