Crypto exchange mistakenly sends $44bn worth of bitcoin to users
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said on Saturday it mistakenly distributed more than $40 billion worth of bitcoins to customers as promotional rewards, triggering a sharp selloff on the platform.
The exchange apologised for the error, which occurred on Friday, and said it had recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins involved, valued at about $44 billion at current prices, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Trading and withdrawals were restricted for 695 affected users within 35 minutes of the mistaken distribution.
Bithumb had intended to give users small promotional rewards of 2,000 won ($1.37) or more, but recipients instead received at least 2,000 bitcoins each, according to media reports.
The company said the incident was not linked to hacking or security breaches and stressed there were no issues with system security or customer asset management.
Bitcoin prices briefly fell 17% to 81.1 million won on Bithumb on Friday evening before rebounding to around 104.5 million won.
Bithumb is the second-largest crypto exchange in South Korea, trailing market leader Upbit.
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
