A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally credited users with more than $40 billion in Bitcoin during a promotional giveaway, briefly turning ordinary customers into nine-figure holders.
The incident at Bithumb, the country's second-largest crypto exchange, sent shockwaves through South Korea's digital-asset market.
The error occurred on February 6, when an employee distributing prizes totaling 620,000 Korean won (about $425) for a "random box" promotion mistakenly entered the amounts in Bitcoin instead of won.
This misstep resulted in 620,000 bitcoins being credited across hundreds of accounts — far exceeding the exchange's actual reserves. At the time, the amount was worth more than $40 billion, The Guardian reported.
Only 249 of the 695 eligible customers opened their prize boxes and received the erroneous credits, according to regulators.
"Catastrophic" was how Lee Chan-jin, governor of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), described the situation, especially for those who sold the Bitcoin and faced potential losses when prices changed.
Bithumb moved quickly once it detected the mistake. Trading and withdrawals were halted within about 35 minutes.
Oops! South Korean crypto exchange accidentally hands out $40B in Bitcoin https://t.co/Foj2v41Xp4 pic.twitter.com/mwFLQF5a9z
— New York Post (@nypost) February 10, 2026
Bithumb Recovers Most Bitcoin After Glitch
However, some users managed to sell approximately 1,788 bitcoins before controls were fully in place, briefly triggering a 15% to 17% drop in Bitcoin prices on the platform.
Some of the proceeds were withdrawn to bank accounts, while others were used to buy different cryptocurrencies.
According to the NY Post, Bithumb has since recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly credited Bitcoin through internal ledger corrections and persuading users to return the funds.
Roughly 125 bitcoins, valued at about $9 million, remain unrecovered. The exchange has pledged to absorb the loss and emphasized that the incident was not the result of hacking or a security breach.
"We want to make it clear that this matter has nothing to do with external hacking or security breaches, and there is no problem with system security or customer asset management," the company said in a statement.
The FSS has launched a full investigation, and South Korea's parliament scheduled an emergency hearing to question both Bithumb and financial authorities.
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