7th February 2026 – (Seoul) A major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange has pledged to fully compensate clients who sold at a loss after a staggering administrative error led to the mistaken distribution of more than $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to users. Bithumb, one of the country’s largest trading platforms, announced it would reimburse losses after the colossal blunder triggered a brief but sharp market selloff.
The incident occurred on Friday evening when an employee intended to distribute 620,000 Korean won (approximately $424) to winners of a promotional event. Instead, the employee mistakenly keyed in 620,000 Bitcoin, according to reports by Yonhap News. The error resulted in the cryptocurrency—worth over $40 billion at the time—being credited to 695 user accounts at 7:00 PM local time.
Bithumb said the mistake was identified within 20 minutes, but not before significant disruption. “An abnormal amount of Bitcoin was mistakenly distributed to some users,” the exchange stated. “As some of the accounts proceeded to sell the credited Bitcoin, the Bitcoin price experienced a brief yet sharp fluctuation.”
Platform data showed prices plummeted by approximately 17% in minutes, falling from around 98.29 million won ($67,188) to 81.1 million won ($55,400). Trading volumes soared as the erroneously credited Bitcoin hit the market.
The exchange began halting trading and withdrawals from the affected accounts at 7:35 PM and had fully blocked them by 7:40 PM. Through these emergency measures, Bithumb managed to recover 99.7% of the incorrectly distributed Bitcoin.
In a statement on Saturday, Bithumb’s Chief Executive Officer, Lee Jae-won, apologised and outlined the compensation plan. Customers who engaged in “panic-selling” during the brief window will have their full loss spread reimbursed and will receive an additional 10% bonus. The company estimates customer losses total around 1 billion won and stated it would use corporate assets to cover any shortfall and restore balances.
“We offer our deepest apologies for the confusion and inconvenience,” Lee said. “We acknowledge, with a deep sense of responsibility, that we failed to uphold the two core values that define a virtual‑asset exchange — stability and integrity.”
The error prompted immediate regulatory scrutiny, with South Korea’s Financial Services Commission convening an emergency inspection meeting on Saturday. The incident adds to existing turbulence in cryptocurrency markets, which have experienced significant volatility and a series of liquidations since last October, undermining investor confidence. Bitcoin itself swung dramatically on Friday, rallying 13% to over $71,000 after earlier threatening to fall below $60,000 for the first time since late 2024.
