Bithumb suspected of mistakenly paying out Bitcoin in event rewards… “Currently checking”

Bithumb, a South Korean digital-asset exchange, is reportedly in the process of clawing back a large amount of Bitcoin (BTC) after mistakenly paying it out during the distribution of event rewards.

According to industry sources on the 6th, Bithumb ran a “Random Box” event that day, and it is believed the mistaken payout occurred while allocating prizes to winners.

Specifically, Bithumb intended to pay winners 2,000 won in cash, but during system entry the payment unit was erroneously entered as BTC (Bitcoin) rather than Korean won, leading to the incident.

The incident became known after one user who received an erroneous deposit of 2,000 Bitcoin sold the entire amount at once. In fact, around 7:30 p.m. that day on Bithumb, Bitcoin saw a large one-off sell order that sent the price sharply down by about 17 million won, from the 99 million-won range to 81.11 million won.

Bithumb, which has moved to assess the situation, is reportedly implementing emergency measures for accounts related to the incident. Some accounts that received the erroneous payouts display a notice saying, “This account has been blocked,” and are currently restricted from logging in.

A Bithumb official said, “We are checking the facts regarding the incident.”