This week, a significant error occurred at South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, which accidentally credited users with $43 billion worth of Bitcoin during a promotion, instead of a small cash reward. This mistake was part of a “Random Box” giveaway, which intended to offer 2,000 won to most recipients. However, 695 users received an unexpected 2,000 BTC each, leading to a rapid sell-off that temporarily crashed Bitcoin’s price on the exchange to $55,000. Although the deposits were only on Bithumb’s internal ledger and not actual on-chain transactions, the sales amounted to over $2 billion, as reported by Korean financial authorities. Bithumb promptly corrected the error and recovered most of the erroneously credited Bitcoin and emphasized that the incident was unrelated to hacking or security breaches. This incident highlights the importance of robust internal ledger management, particularly amid heightened regulatory scrutiny on South Korean crypto exchanges.
Bithumb mistakingly distributes Bitcoin worth $43B in exchange glitch
