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View all search resultsCrypto firm accidentally sends $40 billion in bitcoin to users
According to local reports, Bithumb was meant to send about 2,000 won (US$1.37) to each customer as part of a promotion, but mistakenly transferred roughly 2,000 bitcoins per user.
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Representations of cryptocurrency Bitcoin are seen in this illustration photo taken on Nov. 25, 2024. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
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South Korean cryptocurrency exchange apologized on Saturday after mistakenly transferring more than US$40 billion worth of bitcoin to users, which briefly prompted a selloff on the platform.
Bithumb said it accidentally sent 620,000 bitcoins, currently worth more than $40 billion, and blocked trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected users within 35 minutes after the error occurred on Friday.
According to local reports, Bithumb was meant to send about 2,000 won (US$1.37) to each customer as part of a promotion, but mistakenly transferred roughly 2,000 bitcoins per user.
"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion that occurred during the distribution process of this [promotional] event," Bithumb said in a statement released Saturday.
The platform said it had recovered 99.7 percent of the mistakenly sent bitcoins, and that it would use its own assets to fully cover the amount that was lost in the incident.
It admitted the error briefly caused "sharp volatility" in bitcoin prices on the platform as some recipients sold the tokens, adding that it brought the situation under control within five minutes.
Its charts showed the token's prices briefly went down 17 percent to 81.1 million won on the platform late Friday.
The platform stressed that the incident was "unrelated to external hacking or security breaches".
Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, sank this week, wiping out gains sparked by United States President Donald Trump's presidential election victory in November 2024.
