A cryptocurrency trading platform has apologized after mistakenly transferring Bitcoin worth an estimated $40 billion to users, an error that briefly triggered sharp price fluctuations on the platform.
Bithumb said it accidentally sent about 620,000 Bitcoins to 695 users instead of a small promotional payout. The platform had intended to credit customers with around 2,000 Korean won (about $1.37) each as part of a promotional event, but due to a system error, nearly 2,000 Bitcoins were transferred to each affected account.
The company said it suspended trading and withdrawals for the impacted users within 35 minutes of detecting the issue, while the overall situation was brought under control within five minutes. Some recipients sold the digital assets, contributing to temporary volatility, reports Al-Rai daily.
In a statement, Bithumb apologized for the inconvenience caused during the distribution of the promotional reward, stressing that the incident was not linked to hacking or any external security breach.
The platform confirmed it has recovered 99.7 percent of the Bitcoins sent in error and will use its own assets to cover the remaining loss. Losses were estimated at around one billion Korean won.
Market data on the platform showed Bitcoin’s price briefly fell about 17 percent to 81.1 million won during the incident late Friday, as panic selling took place.
In a follow-up statement, Bithumb said some trades were executed at unfavorable prices for users during the sudden drop. It pledged to compensate affected customers by covering the full price difference in addition to a 10 percent bonus.
