The team at South Korean exchange Bithumb admitted to mistakenly paying some users “abnormally large amounts” in bitcoins. Several accounts immediately sold the assets, causing a price dip.
According to the statement, Bithumb’s control system swiftly identified the unusual transactions and blocked the account from which they were made. The cryptocurrency’s price “returned to normal” within five minutes, and a mechanism to prevent cascading liquidations averted mass position closures.
“We want to make it clear that this incident is not related to any external hacking attacks or security breaches and poses no threat to the systems or management of user assets,” the platform’s statement said.
Bithumb assured that clients did not incur losses due to the platform staff’s erroneous actions. Asset deposit/withdrawal operations proceeded as usual.
The exchange did not disclose any specific data, citing ongoing data collection and an open investigation.
According to independent researcher AB Kuai.Dong, the platform mistakenly credited “hundreds of users” with 2000 BTC (~$141.6 million) as a reward instead of 2000 won (~$1.4).
世界巨大的草台班子！刚刚韩国第二大币圈交易所 Bithumb，出现了短时比特币 -22% 的向下插针。
原因竟然是 Bithumb 交易所误将 2000 枚比特币，当成 2000 韩元奖励，错发给了数百名用户。
而收到钱的用户，在看到后第一件事就是砸盘、变现、赶紧提走跑路。 pic.twitter.com/IS3PzSV78x
— AB Kuai.Dong (@_FORAB) February 6, 2026
Some recipients managed to sell the bitcoins and cash out, resulting in the coin’s price on Bithumb briefly dropping by 22% against the market, the expert noted.
According to local media, the incident was linked to the “Random Box” event. Approximately 700 users received the transactions, and about 240 accounts managed to detect them. The amount withdrawn after selling the first cryptocurrency totaled ~3 billion won (~$2.1 million). The platform managed to recover up to 400,000 BTC.
Back in 2024, the former CEO of Bithumb Holdings, the exchange’s parent company, An Seong-hun, was found guilty of fraud. Last year, law enforcement continued investigative actions against the former director of the platform, Kim Dae-sik.