South Korean authorities launched an investigation into Bithumb after it mistakenly credited 620,000 BTC to users, adding to concerns about “paper Bitcoin” and internal controls. South Korea’s financial watchdog opened an investigation into Bithumb after the exchange mistakenly credited hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin that it did not actually hold to user accounts. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) launched a probe into Bithumb for alleged platform violations around the erroneous crediting of billions of dollars in non-existent Bitcoin (BTC) to user accounts, Yonhap News reported Tuesday. Bithumb acknowledged the incident on Saturday, saying the platform “incorrectly paid” 620,000 BTC ($42.8 billion) to users during a promotional event. Read more
Bithumb says it has reclaimed most of the excess BTC credited during a promotional error and used company funds to cover 1,788 Bitcoin that had already been sold. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says it has resolved an incident in which a promotional reward error credited certain user accounts with excess Bitcoin. In a Sunday statement, the exchange confirmed it recovered 99.7% of the overpaid Bitcoin (BTC) on the same day the incident occurred. The remaining 0.3%, totaling 1,788 Bitcoin that had already been sold, was covered using company funds to ensure customer balances remained fully matched. “Bithumb's holdings of all virtual assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), are 100% equivalent to or exceeding user deposits,” the exchange wrote. Read more
The South Korean exchange said an internal error during a promotional event led to brief price dislocations, stressing that no customer assets were lost. Bithumb said it identified and corrected an internal payout error after an “abnormal amount” of Bitcoin was credited to some user accounts during a promotional event, briefly causing sharp price fluctuations on the exchange. In a company announcement on Friday, the South Korean crypto exchange said the price dislocation occurred after some recipients sold the mistakenly credited Bitcoin, but that it quickly restricted the affected accounts through internal controls, allowing market prices to stabilize within minutes and preventing any chain liquidations. Bithumb said the incident was unrelated to any hacking or security breach and did not result in losses to customer assets, adding that trading, deposits and withdrawals are operating normally. The company said that customer funds remain safely managed and that it will transparently disclose follow-up actions...
Millions of long-inactive users still hold crypto at Bithumb, highlighting how early retail capital can remain untouched for years. South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb flagged over $200 million in customer assets dormant across 2.6 million accounts, offering a glimpse into how much retail capital remains untouched on centralized platforms. The disclosure came as part of the exchange's dormant asset recovery campaign, which targets users who have not logged in or traded for over a year. According to Bithumb, dormant assets total about 291.6 billion Korean won (about $201.8 million), with some balances left inactive for over a decade. Bithumb said the largest dormant holding it had identified was worth about $2.84 million. Meanwhile, the longest period of inactivity stretched to 4,380 days, or almost a dozen years. Read more