South Korean lawmakers are demanding accountability from financial regulators following a significant blunder by the crypto exchange Bithumb, which mistakenly credited $43 billion in Bitcoin to user accounts. The incident occurred earlier this month when approximately 695 users were erroneously given up to 2,000 BTC each instead of 2,000 Korean won during a promotional event, leading to a flash crash in Bitcoin’s price. Although Bithumb quickly rectified the mistake and recovered about 99.7% of the distributed Bitcoin, regulators, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, were criticized for failing to identify the underlying systemic flaw during their multiple reviews of Bithumb since 2022. In light of this event, the FSS has extended its investigation into both the recent error and past minor incidents involving Bithumb, underscoring deeper structural issues within the cryptocurrency regulation framework in South Korea.
South Korean lawmakers criticize regulators over Bithumb’s $43B Bitcoin error
