A significant incident occurred this week at the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, resulting in the inadvertent crediting of users with substantial amounts of Bitcoin. Instead of a planned distribution of 2,000 won (approximately $1.37), the exchange mistakenly credited about 2,000 BTC to roughly 672 users, equating to a staggering total value of over $95.4 billion based on current Bitcoin prices.
This unforeseen error came during a “Random Box” giveaway event, during which a substantial majority of recipients were expected to receive the lower-value prize. Reports suggest that around 700 participants were involved in the giveaway. The misallocated funds were recorded exclusively on Bithumb’s internal ledger, meaning that actual on-chain Bitcoin transfers did not occur.
Despite the rapid identification and correction of the error—reported to have been done within five minutes—this brief window allowed many users to exploit the situation. Before the company rectified the mistake, an impressive estimated $2 billion worth of the erroneously credited Bitcoin was sold off by the users, triggering a dramatic crash in Bitcoin’s value on the exchange.
Following the sell-off, the price of Bitcoin on Bithumb plummeted to around $55,000, which significantly undercut prices on competing exchanges where Bitcoin was trading at approximately $60,000 before recovering to $71,047.
In an official blog post, Bithumb addressed the incident, clarifying that it was not a result of external hacking or any security breach, and affirmed that the event did not compromise customer asset management or security. The company emphasized that no users experienced losses of their legitimate assets due to this mix-up.
Overall, the incident raises questions about the risks associated with cryptocurrency exchanges and their operational protocols, highlighting the potential for rapid market fluctuations arising from simple human errors.
