A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, made a big mistake.

 

A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, made a big mistake.

The company wanted to reward customers with 2,000 won (about $1.37) each.
But instead, it mistakenly sent 2,000 bitcoins to some customers.

Because of this error, 695 customers briefly became multi-millionaires. The total value of the mistake was over $40 billion.

Bithumb quickly noticed the problem and stopped trading and withdrawals within 35 minutes. The company said it was able to recover 99.7% of the bitcoins that were sent by mistake.

Bithumb explained that the issue was not caused by hacking and that their security systems were not breached.

South Korea’s financial regulator said it will review the incident and investigate further if any illegal activity is found.

Bithumb apologized and promised to focus more on customer trust. The company also said it will:
• Pay 20,000 won (about $13.66) in compensation to affected users
• Waive some trading fees
• Improve its systems and use AI to detect unusual transactions

The incident has renewed discussions about stricter financial regulations.