On February 6, 2026, the South Korean change Bithumb made an operational error throughout a promotional occasion wherein it deliberate to distribute small rewards in South Korean received (KRW) and. As an alternative, it despatched bitcoin (BTC) to its customers by mistake, which led to a regulatory investigation.
On account of alleged human error—an worker mistakenly entered the fee unit as “BTC” as an alternative of “KRW”— the system mistakenly distributed round 620,000 BTC to consumer accounts. The platform deliberate to ship rewards of between 2,000 and 50,000 KRW per consumer, equal to roughly $1.40.
It’s value clarifying that 620,000 BTC is a a lot bigger determine than what the change had in its possession: 46,000 BTC, as seen within the following Arkham graph.
Bithumb detected the anomaly, which led to limiting operations, deposits and withdrawals within the accounts concerned 35 minutes after the incident, and commenced recovering the misguided balances. The incident was not associated to a cyber assault nor did it have an effect on the safety of the purchasers’ techniques or property, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
The ruling generated quick promoting stress in Bithumb’s inside market. The worth of BTC on the platform fell to 81 million received (about $55,000), a drop of round 16% in comparison with world ranges, which remained at $60,000 on the time.
Fund restoration and change response
Bithumb later reported that it recovered 99.7% of the BTC distributed in error, utilizing inside controls and, in some circumstances, collaboration with different gamers within the sector.
The corporate promised to compensate customers harmed by gross sales at depressed costs and introduced measures to strengthen its verification protocols and controls in automated reward distribution processes.
Changpeng Zhao, founding father of Binance, commented on the case and confirmed that his platform collaborated within the restoration of a part of the funds.
“I did not submit something on the time to keep away from producing FUD (worry, uncertainty and doubt),” he defined. Zhao beneficial implementing strict peak worth checks on reward distribution features and real-time audits to keep away from related errors within the trade.
Regulatory intervention and bolstered supervision
The incident instantly attracted the eye of South Korea’s Monetary Supervisory Service (FSS). The regulator launched a selected investigation into Bithumb to find out the causes of the failure, consider inside controls and confirm potential regulatory non-compliance.
In parallel, the SSF shouldn’t be solely investigating Bithumb, however is increasing its scrutiny to high-risk practices within the cryptoasset sector, equivalent to value manipulation and different conduct that distorts the market. Inside this technique, regulators study the actions of bitcoin whales (entities with greater than 1,000 BTC of their wallets). Excessive quantity trades can considerably affect the worth and exacerbate volatility, particularly in situations of mass liquidations or systemic errors.
Moreover, the company is advancing within the growth of stricter laws to mitigate pc and operational vulnerabilities. These embrace harder monetary penalties for technical failures and larger authorized tasks for managers relating to cybersecurity and inside controls.
Replace 02/09/2026: It’s clarified that the platform credited extra BTC to consumer accounts than it truly owned.
