S Korean crypto firm accidentally pays out $40bn in bitcoin

BBC News - WorldCenterEN 2 min read 100% complete February 7, 2026 at 02:56 PM

AI Summary

short article 2 min

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb mistakenly distributed $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to its customers on Friday, intending to give a small cash reward. The platform quickly realized the error and restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers, recovering 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins within 35 minutes. Bithumb stated the incident was not due to hacking or security breaches and apologized for the error. South Korea's financial regulator, the FSS, will investigate the incident for any illegal activity. Bithumb plans to compensate customers and improve verification systems, including implementing AI to detect abnormal transactions, and will cooperate with regulators.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Financial Times 30% United States 40% Citigroup 50% Lee Jae-won 60% Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) 70% South Korea ×280% Bithumb ×690%

Keywords

bitcoin 100% accidental payout 90% cryptocurrency exchange 90% bithumb 90% error 80% regulatory controls 70% financial regulator 60% system security 50% customer asset management 50% trading fees 40%