Bithumb Accidentally Sends 620,000 BTC to 695 Users, Recovers 99.7%

According to a notice disclosed by the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, the exchange made an operational error during the distribution of activity rewards, mistakenly distributing a total of 620,000 bitcoins to 695 users (rather than the previously speculated 2,000). Bithumb quickly froze the trading and withdrawal functions of the relevant accounts within 35 minutes after identifying the issue. As of the time of the notice, 618,212 bitcoins had been successfully recovered, accounting for 99.7% of the mistakenly distributed amount. 93% of the assets corresponding to the 1,788 bitcoins that had already been sold were also recovered. The notice emphasized that no bitcoins were transferred to external wallets in this incident, and there was no involvement of a hacking attack or security vulnerability. The exchange pledged to use its own company assets to make up for the bitcoins that could not be recovered and will redesign the asset distribution process and strengthen internal control systems to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.