$40 billion blunder! South Korean crypto exchange accidentally sent 6,20,000 Bitcoins to users — Here’s what happened

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has apologized after accidentally transferring $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to customers as part of a promotional event, AFP reported on Feb. 7.

According to the report, 6,20,000 Bitcoins worth over $40 billion were accidentally deposited into the wallets of 695 affected users, leading to a brief sell-off on the platform.

Almost all of the tokens (about 99.7%) have been recovered and the platform said it will use its own assets to cover the losses. The company added that it blocked trading and withdrawals from affected accounts within 35 minutes of the error occurring on February 6.

How did Bithumb make a mistake sending Bitcoin to customers?

AFP cited local reports that said Bithumb initially planned to send around 2,000 won ( ₹123.76) to each customer as part of a promotional event, but accidentally sent 2,000 bitcoins per user instead.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion experienced during the distribution process of this (promotional) event,” the exchange said in its Feb. 7 statement.

Additionally, the platform assured that it would use its own assets to cover the entire amount lost in the incident.

“We would like to make it clear that this incident is unrelated to external hacking or security breaches and does not involve any issues with system security or customer asset management,” Bithumb said in a statement, according to a Reuters report. he added.

Were Bitcoin prices affected due to the error?

The company admitted that accidental deposits of Bitcoin into wallets led to sales among some users on the platform and led to “drastic fluctuations” in prices for a short time. However, Bithumb said the situation was brought under control within five minutes.

AFP said platform charts showed Bitcoin prices briefly fell 17% on the platform late Friday, Feb. 6, to 81.1 million won.

According to a Reuters report, Bithumb is the second largest crypto exchange in South Korea after market leader Upbit.

Bitcoin price today at $68,527.34: Check crypto markets

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin was trading at $68,527.34 on February 7; The free fall near the previous day’s $60,000 levels was briefly interrupted. The token increased by 5.96% in the last 24 hours; The market value was 1.36 trillion dollars (5.77% compared to the previous day) and the trading volume was 87.93 billion dollars (37.95% decrease).

The value of the crypto market is 2.35 trillion dollars and the transaction volume is 202.85 billion dollars. The fear and greed index remains the ‘Extreme Fear’ category.

Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 58.3% (down 0.01%), while the second-largest crypto Ethereum held 10.5% of the market share (down 1.7%), while other tokens made up 31.2% (up 1.72%) of the February 7 pie.

Ethereum also recovered slightly, trading at $2,003.90 (up 5.81%), with a market cap of $241.85 billion (up 7.31%) and trading volume of $51.97 billion (down 25.41%).

Nischal Shetty, Founder of WazirX, stated that crypto markets have seen short-term fluctuations in the last 24 hours largely driven by technical factors and cautious sentiment rather than any fundamental shift in the ecosystem.

Delta Exchange Research Analyst Riya Sehgal also noted that Bitcoin’s recovery from $60,000 lows and Ethereum’s recovery above $2,000 point to a potential turning point after the steepest two-week decline since mid-2022. Solana added that altcoins are also recovering, with broad-based green in major values ​​such as XRP and Cardano, indicating a revival in risk appetite.

Shetty also added that macro conditions remain stable, with major central banks providing a predictable liquidity environment by keeping interest rates constant. “More importantly, financial institutions’ continued investment in crypto infrastructure reinforces the long-term belief that this space is becoming an integral part of the global financial system beyond short-term price movements,” he added.

“Technically, Bitcoin should close above the $72,000-$75,000 resistance to confirm the continuation of the trend, while Ethereum breaking above $2,300 will strengthen the bullish case. Overall, the market appears to be shifting from panic to cautious optimism, signaling that the worst of the declines may be behind us, but volatility is likely to remain high in the near term,” Sehgal said.

(With input from institutions)