At the domestic virtual-asset exchange Bithumb, an unprecedented incident occurred in which 2,000 Bitcoins and more were paid out while distributing event prizes. At the time of the payout, the price per Bitcoin was about 98 million KRW. After confirming the mispayment, Bithumb restricted trading and withdrawals on the relevant customer accounts, but it was confirmed that some customers sold and converted the assets to cash.

On the 7th, Bithumb posted an apology on its website. Bithumb stated, “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers by the confusion that occurred during the event payout process,” and added, “An abnormal quantity of Bitcoin was paid to some customers during the event payout process.”

At around 7 p.m. the previous day, during its own ‘Random Box’ event intended to award at least 2,000 KRW per person, Bithumb entered the unit incorrectly and paid 2,000 BTC to 695 people, for a total of 620,000 BTC. Given that Bitcoin was in the 98 million KRW range per coin at that time, winners received at least 196 billion KRW worth of Bitcoin per person.

Some customers who received the Bitcoins sold them on the market, causing a brief, sharp fluctuation in Bitcoin prices. Realizing the situation 20 minutes after the prizes were paid, Bithumb blocked trading·withdrawals from 7:35 p.m. that day and began recovery measures.

Bithumb said, “Through our abnormal-transaction internal control system, we blocked trading and withdrawals for 695 customers within 35 minutes of the mispayment,” adding, “More than 99% of the mispaid amount has been recovered, and swift action enabled us to minimize customer losses.”

However, as of 4:30 a.m. that day, about 120 Bitcoins that had been sold could not be recovered. Calculated at 98 million KRW per Bitcoin, this amounts to about 11 billion KRW. Bithumb stated, “For the quantity of BTC already sold and not recovered in this mispayment incident, we will make it right precisely using the company's own assets,” and added, “Bithumb takes this situation very seriously and will fully commit to preventing a recurrence by redesigning the entire asset payment process and upgrading our internal control systems.”