A major cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea has apologised after mistakenly sending a huge amount of bitcoin to its users. The error led to temporary chaos and a short selloff on the platform.
Bithumb said it accidentally transferred 620,000 bitcoins to 695 users. The total value of the amount was more than $40 billion.
The exchange blocked trading and withdrawals within 35 minutes after the mistake was found on Friday.
Local reports said the company had planned to send around 2,000 South Korean won to each user as part of a promotion. Instead, it wrongly sent nearly 2,000 bitcoins to each person.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion that occurred during the distribution process of this (promotional) event,” Bithumb said in a statement.
The exchange said it managed to recover 99.7 per cent of the transferred bitcoins. It also said it would use its own funds to cover the remaining losses.
Bithumb admitted that the mistake caused sharp price changes on the platform.
Some users sold the bitcoin they received, which led to sudden volatility. The company said it controlled the situation within five minutes.
Data showed that bitcoin prices dropped by 17 per cent to 81.1 million won on the platform late on Friday.
In another statement on Saturday, Bithumb said some users made trades at poor prices during the drop.
This included panic selling. The exchange said it would compensate these users by covering the full price difference and adding a 10 per cent bonus.
The company estimated total losses at around 1 billion won.
Bithumb earlier said the incident was not linked to any hacking or security breach.
Bitcoin has fallen globally this week. It erased gains that followed the election victory of US President Donald Trump in November 2024.
