South Korea’s Bithumb exchange recovered 99.7% of over $26 billion worth of Bitcoin mistakenly sent to customers due to an input error. The incident, which occurred during an event reward distribution, caused brief market volatility. The exchange froze affected accounts within minutes, confirmed there was no security breach, and stated normal trading continued.
A payout error at South Korea’s Bithumb exchange distributed an abnormal amount of Bitcoin to 695 users, briefly shaking the market. The incident happened during an event reward distribution on February 6.
According to the exchange’s February 7 announcement, the problem stemmed from a simple input mistake and was not related to any hacking attempt. Bithumb detected the overpayment within 20 minutes and began freezing affected accounts by 19:35 local time.
The company stated that around 620,000 BTC was mistakenly distributed. Its monitoring system retrieved 618,212 BTC, accounting for 99.7% of the total erroneous payment.
Bithumb confirmed that Bitcoin’s price returned to normal within five minutes of the incident. The exchange also noted that its system to prevent liquidation worked properly to avoid a chain reaction.
Approximately 93% of the 1,788 BTC already sold by users has been recovered. The exchange emphasized that no external transfers of the wrongly paid Bitcoin occurred, meaning funds never left the platform.
Bithumb claims customer wallet balances match account balances due to strict accounting practices. The company also performs quarterly external asset due diligence with an independent accounting firm.
The exchange stated it is taking the situation seriously and will improve its entire payout process. “They apologize again for the confusion that occurred during the event,” the notice concluded.
Bithumb further claims any unrecovered Bitcoin that was sold will be covered using corporate assets. This ensures no customer will incur a loss from the administrative error.
