{"id":5593,"date":"2026-05-06T12:55:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/5593\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:55:39","slug":"oops-south-korean-crypto-exchange-accidentally-hands-out-40b-in-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/5593\/","title":{"rendered":"Oops! South Korean crypto exchange accidentally hands out $40B in Bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A South Korean crypto exchange accidentally dumped more than $40 billion<\/a> worth of Bitcoin into customer accounts \u2014 an astounding error during a giveaway meant to award prizes worth just a few cents each.<\/p>\n

The blunder at Bithumb, South Korea\u2019s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, briefly turned ordinary users into nine-figure Bitcoin holders<\/a> and triggered a brief crash that rattled the country\u2019s tightly watched digital-asset market.<\/p>\n

The incident happened Friday when a Bithumb employee was tasked with distributing giveaway prizes totaling 620,000 Korean won \u2014 about $425 \u2014 as part of a promotional \u201crandom box\u201d event.<\/p>\n

Bithumb, South Korea\u2019s second-largest crypto exchange, mistakenly credited users with more than $40 billion in Bitcoin during a botched promotional giveaway. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Instead of entering the payouts in won, the staffer mistakenly put in the amount in Bitcoin, resulting in 620,000 bitcoins being credited across hundreds<\/a> of customer accounts \u2014 a massive sum worth more than $40 billion at the time.<\/p>\n

Only 249 of the 695 qualifying customers opened their prize boxes and received the erroneous payouts, according to regulators.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin was trading at just under $70,000 per coin at the time, meaning the mistaken credits briefly transformed recipients into multimillionaires on paper.<\/p>\n

The amounts credited far exceeded Bithumb\u2019s actual Bitcoin reserves, and the company detected the error within minutes. It moved to halt trading and withdrawals on affected accounts within about 35 minutes, according to regulators.<\/p>\n

But that short window was enough to spark chaos.<\/p>\n

A staff input error at Bithumb turned a giveaway worth just a few cents into a $40 billion Bitcoin blunder. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Some users sold the phantom Bitcoin on the exchange before controls were fully in place, triggering a sharp, localized plunge in prices on Bithumb.<\/p>\n

At one point, Bitcoin prices on the platform fell as much as 15% to 17%, significantly below prices on rival South Korean exchanges.<\/p>\n

Financial authorities later said 86 customers managed to sell about 1,788 bitcoins before the freeze took effect.<\/p>\n

Some of the proceeds were withdrawn to bank accounts, while other funds were used to purchase different cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n

Customers at Bithumb were accidentally credited with 620,000 bitcoins \u2014 far more than the exchange actually held. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Bithumb said it has since recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly credited Bitcoin by reversing internal ledger entries and persuading users to return the assets.<\/p>\n

About 125 bitcoins \u2014 worth roughly $9 million \u2014 remain unrecovered, according to multiple reports. The exchange has said it plans to absorb the loss.<\/p>\n

In a public apology, Bithumb stressed that the incident was not the result of hacking or a security breach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make it clear that this matter has nothing to do with external hacking or security breaches, and there is no problem with system security or customer asset management,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Korean crypto exchange accidentally dumped more than $40 billion worth of Bitcoin into customer accounts \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[530,78,31,337,864,33,915],"class_list":{"0":"post-5593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-korea-exchange","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-korea","11":"tag-korea-exchange","12":"tag-krx","13":"tag-south-korea","14":"tag-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}