On 6 February 2026, a routine promotional payout went flawed at South Korean cryptocurrency trade Bithumb, when a system configuration error credited customers with massive Bitcoin balances as a substitute of the small rewards that had been meant.
The glitch occurred throughout a promotional occasion the place winners have been imagined to obtain a small reward value about 2,000 South Korean received, roughly $1.40. As a substitute, some accounts have been credited with not less than 2,000 bitcoins every, leading to about 620,000 BTC incorrectly assigned throughout 695 buyer accounts, with a complete worth within the tens of billions of {dollars} earlier than most of it was recovered.
As soon as the error started affecting the trade’s order books, some recipients bought their sudden Bitcoin holdings. That sudden enhance in accessible provide pushed the worth of BTC on Bithumb sharply decrease relative to different markets, with inner value charts exhibiting a quick drop of round 17 p.c earlier than stabilising. Officers on the trade used inner controls to limit buying and selling and withdrawals on the affected accounts inside about 35 minutes of figuring out the error, and have since recovered almost all (99.7%) of the 620,000 misplaced Bitcoin.
Bithumb has stated the incident was the results of an inner operational mistake, not a hacking try or exterior breach, and said that buyer property stay safe. The corporate’s assertion emphasised ongoing regular operations and pledged clear follow-up measures to stop related errors, together with enhancements in verification and monitoring programs.
“We wish to make it clear that this incident is unrelated to any exterior hacking or safety breach, and doesn’t pose any points with system safety or buyer asset administration. Buyer property are being safely managed as earlier than, and transactions and deposits/withdrawals are at present working usually,” the corporate stated in its announcement earlier in the present day.
Regulators in South Korea have additionally responded promptly, holding emergency talks after the incident. Officers from the nation’s monetary oversight our bodies have raised issues about vulnerabilities in crypto buying and selling programs and signalled they could conduct on-site inspections of Bithumb’s controls and operations if additional irregularities are detected.
Bithumb and Its File of Breaches, Insider Claims, and Pricey Errors
This isn’t the primary time Bithumb has drawn consideration for safety failures and inner lapses. Lengthy earlier than the most recent cost error, the trade had already constructed a repute for incidents that raised onerous questions on the way it protects consumer funds and knowledge.
Again in June 2018, when Bithumb ranked among the many world’s largest Bitcoin and Ether exchanges, hackers broke into its programs and walked away with $31 million value of cryptocurrency. The breach shook confidence in South Korea’s crypto sector and positioned Bithumb below intense public and regulatory scrutiny.
Years later, historical past appeared to repeat itself. In April 2024, the trade confirmed one other breach that resulted in losses of roughly $20 million. What made this case extra critical was the declare that the theft concerned an insider quite than an exterior attacker, pointing to deeper weaknesses in inner controls.
With repeated incidents going from hacks to inner failures and operational errors, stress has been constructing on regulators to take a better look. Every episode provides to the view that Bithumb’s issues usually are not remoted occasions however a part of a sample that requires more durable oversight and clearer accountability.
