Bithumb to reimburse users after 620,000‑bitcoin giveaway error

A technical error at South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange sent 620,000 bitcoins to customer accounts during a promotional giveaway, briefly distorting prices on the platform and prompting a promise of reimbursement and compensation from the company. Bithumb said it recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly transferred coins and will reimburse customers who suffered losses from panic selling.

The exchange said it had intended to distribute a small cash reward of 2,000 won (about $1.37) per winner as part of the promotion, but winners instead received large bitcoin allocations. Local reports indicated recipients were credited roughly 2,000 bitcoins each, a misallocation that briefly made some account holders virtual multimillionaires. At prevailing market prices, the 620,000‑bitcoin stock has been described as worth more than $40 billion, with one calculation near $44 billion.

Bithumb issued an apology and sought to soothe customers. “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion that occurred during the distribution process of this (promotional) event,” the exchange said in a public statement. The company also sought to rule out an external attack, adding: “We 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.” CEO Lee Jae‑won said the company would “take this accident as a lesson and prioritise ‘customer trust and peace of mind’ rather than external growth.”

Even after the recoveries, the error triggered a sharp selloff on the exchange. Charts from the platform showed bitcoin prices on Bithumb briefly slumped about 17% to 81.1 million won late on the day of the incident. The rise in transaction activity and subsequent sell pressure highlights the speed at which operational errors can transmit into price volatility on single venues and ripple into broader markets.

Bithumb has committed to make affected customers whole. The company said it would use its own assets to fully cover any amounts lost in the incident and that it would reimburse customers who realised losses from panic selling. One statement reported that the company “will fully compensate affected customers for their losses and provide an additional 10 percent compensation.” Recovering 99.7% of 620,000 bitcoins implies roughly 1,860 coins remained unrecovered at the time of the announcement.

Regulators convened an emergency meeting and said they would investigate the incident and review exchanges’ internal controls. Authorities warned they could conduct on‑site inspections of Bithumb and other platforms if irregularities are found in their holdings, governance or operations of virtual assets. The review signals heightened scrutiny of crypto platforms’ operational risk and consumer protections in South Korea.

Key questions remain unresolved: the precise technical cause of the transfer error, the exact number of accounts affected and whether any recipients withdrew funds before the recovery, and whether regulators will impose penalties or new operational requirements. For markets, the episode underscores how concentrated operational failures can produce outsized valuation swings and accelerate calls for tighter oversight of cryptocurrency trading venues.