Bithumb mistakenly credited 620,000 bitcoins to 695 user accounts during a Random Box giveaway, instead of the intended 2,000 won ($1.37) rewards. The error sent 2,000 bitcoins to each winner, and the company detected the issue within five minutes and blocked trading and withdrawals for affected accounts within 35 minutes. Some recipients immediately sold the credited coins, sending bitcoin’s price on Bithumb down about 17% to 81.1 million won. The flash crash occurred only on Bithumb’s internal ledger and did not involve on-chain transfers.
Korean financial authorities estimate that users sold over $2 billion worth of the phantom bitcoin during the brief window before accounts were frozen. The exchange said it would cover all losses using company assets and emphasized that the incident was unrelated to any external hacking or security breach, noting there were no problems with system security or customer asset management.
Bithumb plans to compensate affected customers by covering price differences plus a 10% bonus, with total losses estimated at around 1 billion won. The company said the incident occurred during bitcoin’s downturn, as prices moved from about $60,000 to around $71,000. It intends to redesign its asset payment process and strengthen internal controls to prevent similar incidents. Bithumb processes transactions for millions of users in South Korea and has been one of the country’s largest trading platforms since 2014.
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