- A glitch gave users 2,000 BTC each instead of $1.37 rewards—almost $40B—but Bithumb recovered nearly all funds fast.
- No hack occurred; Bithumb added AI monitoring, stricter limits, and compensation to protect users and prevent future errors.
- Incident highlights how human mistakes in finance can spiral, emphasizing automated controls and regulatory oversight.
A massive cryptocurrency error shocked South Korea this week as Bithumb accidentally airdropped 620,000 bitcoins to customers. The glitch briefly created multi-millionaires overnight, with more than $40 billion mistakenly credited.
Bithumb had intended to give users a small reward of 2,000 won, roughly $1.37, but the system instead distributed 2,000 bitcoins each. The exchange quickly restricted trading and withdrawals for 695 affected accounts within 35 minutes. Hence, almost all the misallocated funds were recovered, with Bithumb reporting a 99.7% recovery rate.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, commented on the incident, stating, “We helped in this recovery effort, a tiny bit. I didn’t tweet when it first happened, to not spread FUD. A human error of $134m vs $1,340. All airdrop features should have a maximum value check.” His observation highlights the need for stricter risk controls and automated limits in crypto operations.
Moreover, Bithumb emphasized that the incident involved no external hacking or security breach. The exchange confirmed that its system and customer assets remained secure throughout the error.
Regulatory and Corporate Response
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service held an emergency meeting after the incident. They promised to actively look for any suspected illegal acts. Bithumb also promised to cooperate. Lee Jae-won, the CEO of Bithumb, promised that the company “will take this accident as a lesson and focus on ‘customer trust and peace of mind,’ not on external growth.”
As a result, the platform has promised compensation of 20,000 won (13.66 U.S. dollars) to all users at the time, as well as waiving fees for trades and enhancing their verification procedures. Furthermore, the platform intends to use AI technology to monitor abnormal trade transactions, which should help the platform avoid any further mistakes.
This present episode is similar to the massive error that happened in April 2024, whereby, due to a massive error, Citigroup mistakenly credited a customer with $81 trillion as opposed to the actual amount of $280. This episode, therefore, emphasizes the large consequences of errors in the system. Besides, there is the role played by AI in maintaining trust, especially in crypto as well as traditional financial markets.
