South Korean Exchange Bithumb Accidentally “Gives Away” $40B in Bitcoin in Promotional Blunder

In one of the most unusual incidents in crypto history, Bithumb, a major South Korean cryptocy exchange, mistakenly credited users with hundreds of thousands of bitcoins — worth tens of billions of dollars — during a routine promotional event, briefly crashing the exchange’s internal Bitcoin price and prompting regulators to sound the alarm. 

Massive Mistake During Rewards Distribution

The error occurred on Feb. 6, 2026, when Bithumb attempted to distribute a small promotional reward of about 2,000 Korean won (≈ $1.40) to participants. Due to a systems mishap, about 2,000 BTC (not 2,000 KRW) was credited to each of roughly 695 recipient accounts, totalling approximately 620,000 BTC — a sum that was briefly valued at more than $40 billion at prevailing prices. 

Bithumb says the mistake was an internal accounting or input error, not a hack or security breach. The exchange rapidly restricted trading and withdrawals on affected accounts and reversed the bulk of the transfers within about 35 minutes once technicians realized the issue. 

Sell-Off and Price Volatility on the Exchange

Even within that short window, some users placed sell orders, causing Bitcoin’s price on Bithumb to plunge by as much as 17 % before the platform limited trading to contain the fallout. The internal price briefly diverged sharply from other exchanges’ markets before normalizing. 

Authorities estimate that users managed to sell more than $2 billion worth of the miscredited Bitcoin before the corrections were applied, despite the reversal effort. 

Recovery and Exchange Response

Bithumb says it was able to recover about 99.7 % of the incorrectly distributed Bitcoin and has assured customers that no actual on-chain wallet balances outside its internal ledger were affected. The company also stressed that no user assets were lost and that the incident did not compromise exchange security systems. 

In official statements, the firm apologized for the “confusion that occurred during the distribution process” and noted that it will compensate accounts adversely affected by trades executed during the brief price distortion — covering any losses plus a bonus as part of its remediation plan. 

Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies

The dramatic glitch has drawn immediate attention from South Korean regulators. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said the event highlighted weaknesses in exchange operational controls and called for stricter oversight of crypto platforms to prevent future systemic errors. Officials indicated that on-site inspections of Bithumb and other digital asset firms may be ordered if internal control deficiencies are found. 

FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin underscored that while “ghost coin” bookkeeping errors like this are not hacks, they still undermine confidence in virtual asset systems as financial infrastructure unless addressed through tighter rules and supervision. 

A Wake-Up Call for Crypto Infrastructure

Although most of the Bitcoin was recovered and the effect on the broader market was limited, the episode has become a cautionary tale about operational risk in centralized crypto exchanges and the importance of robust testing and safeguards — especially for high-value digital assets like Bitcoin.