The error happened on February 6 during a promotional event. Instead of the expected bonus of 2,000 Korean won, users received thousands of bitcoins in their accounts, affecting several hundred accounts.
In response to the incident, the exchange promptly suspended all withdrawal operations and trading for the affected clients. According to the company itself, most of the mistakenly transferred funds were successfully returned, as users did not manage to withdraw them.
Bithumb representatives noted that the incident is not related to a cyberattack or hacking—the cause lies in a technical error within the system. Financial regulators in South Korea have begun an investigation into the circumstances that led to this incident.
Reports of this glitch caused brief fluctuations in the bitcoin exchange rate in local markets and raised questions about the reliability of control systems on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
