What was the clerical error at Bithumb?

Bithumb mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoin, valued at approximately $43 billion, to 695 customers instead of the intended 2,000 Korean won reward.

How did Bithumb's bitcoin error affect the market?

The erroneous distribution caused a temporary 10% downtick in the price of bitcoin on the Bithumb exchange as some recipients immediately sold their misallocated funds.

Was the mistakenly sent bitcoin recovered?

Yes, Bithumb has recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoin that was erroneously sent to customers.

Home / Business and Economy / Bithumb's $43B Bitcoin Blunder: 695 Users Get Crypto Windfall

Bithumb's $43B Bitcoin Blunder: 695 Users Get Crypto Windfall

7 Feb

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Summary

Bithumb mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoin to 695 users.
The erroneous distribution caused a temporary 10% price drop.
Nearly all the misallocated bitcoin has since been recovered.

Bithumb's $43B Bitcoin Blunder: 695 Users Get Crypto Windfall

A major clerical error at South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb resulted in 620,000 bitcoin, worth around $43 billion, being erroneously sent to 695 users. This unexpected distribution triggered a temporary 10% decrease in Bitcoin's price on the exchange due to immediate sell-offs by some recipients.

Bithumb has since confirmed the incident, emphasizing it was not a security breach but a system error. The exchange has taken measures to mitigate further damage by limiting transactions for affected users. Significantly, 99.7% of the misallocated bitcoin has been recovered.

This event brings to light the concept of 'paper bitcoin,' where exchanges may not hold sufficient actual bitcoin to cover all customer balances. This issue was notably central to the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange in 2014. Bithumb's reported assets of $5.3 billion stand in stark contrast to the $43 billion it errantly awarded.