Fat Fingered: How Bithumb Sent 2,000 Bitcoin in Error
In a staggering operational blunder, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb today accidentally sent massive amounts of Bitcoin to its users, leading to a localized market crash and a frantic recovery effort.
The error occurred during a promotional “Random Box” event. Bithumb had planned to reward users during the promotion with small cash prizes ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 Korean Won (KRW) (roughly $15–$38 USD).
However, during the manual payout process, a staff member mistakenly set the currency unit to Bitcoin (BTC) instead of KRW. Instead of receiving a few dollars, winners were suddenly credited with 2,000 BTC each.
With Bitcoin trading at approximately 98 million KRW (around $73,000) at the time, each “winning” user saw their balance skyrocket by an estimated 196 billion KRW ($146 million USD).
Roughly 700 users purchased a “Random Box,” and approximately 240 users opened their boxes and were credited with the incorrect amount.
The impact was immediate. Realizing the error, several users instantly sold their accidental windfall for KRW. This massive, sudden sell pressure caused the price of Bitcoin on Bithumb to plummet over 10%, dropping to 81 million KRW while global prices remained stable.
But crucially, no Bitcoin actually moved on the blockchain. The funds were sent off-chain, meaning they were simply allocated on the company’s internal ledger.
Bithumb moved quickly to halt all deposits and withdrawals, eventually freezing the affected accounts. While the exchange has reportedly recovered a vast majority of the misplaced funds, roughly 3 billion KRW ($2.2 million) was successfully withdrawn by users before the gates were shut.
The Bithumb website
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