Crypto Firm Accidentally Sends $44B in Bitcoins to Users

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said it had accidentally given away more than $40 billion worth of bitcoins to customers as promotional rewards, triggering a sharp selloff on the exchange, Hyunjoo Jin reported for Reuters.

Bithumb trails Upbit, a dominant player in the South Korean crypto market. (Photo: Bithumb X) 

Bithumb apologized for the mistake, which took place on Friday, and said it had recovered 99.7 percent of the 620,000 bitcoins, worth about $44 billion at current prices.

It restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the erroneous distribution.

The exchange had planned to distribute small cash rewards of 2,000 Korean won ($1.37) or more to each user as part of a promotional event, but winners received at least 2,000 bitcoins each instead, media reports said.

“We would like to make it clear that this incident is unrelated to external hacking or security breaches, and there are no problems with system security or customer asset management,” Bithumb said in a statement.

Bitcoin prices briefly slumped 17 percent to 81.1 million won on Friday evening on Bithumb, according to charts from the exchange. It later recovered and last traded at 104.5 million won.

Bithumb trails Upbit, a dominant player in the South Korean crypto market.