SEOUL: South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has confirmed it accidentally distributed more than $40 billion worth of bitcoins to customers as part of a promotional reward, triggering a brief selloff on the platform.
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The incident occurred on Friday, when the exchange intended to award users small cash rewards of 2,000 Korean won (about $1.37) each. Instead, 695 customers received at least 2,000 bitcoins each, media reports said. Bithumb quickly restricted trading and withdrawals within 35 minutes and said it has recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly distributed 620,000 bitcoins, valued at roughly $44 billion at current prices.
BITHUMB ACCIDENTALLY SENDS OUT 2000 BTC TO USERS WHO IMMEDIATELY MARKET DUMP
A major operational mistake at South Korea’s crypto exchange Bithumb reportedly led to the accidental distribution of 2,000 BTC ($130M) instead of 2,000 KRW ($1.50) as a rewards payout.
According to… pic.twitter.com/GonGPdJ97r
— Bitcoin News (@BitcoinNewsCom) February 6, 2026
“We would like to make it clear that this incident is unrelated to external hacking or security breaches, and there are no problems with system security or customer asset management,” the exchange said in a statement.
The erroneous distribution caused bitcoin prices on Bithumb to briefly slump 17% to 81.1 million won on Friday evening, before recovering to 104.5 million won. Charts from the exchange confirmed the price fluctuations during the short-lived panic.
Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, trails market leader Upbit in trading volume and user base. The company has apologized for the mistake and assured users that the incident was purely a technical error linked to the promotional campaign.
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Authorities and market watchers are monitoring the situation, though the exchange emphasized that customer assets remain secure and that trading operations have resumed normally.