Bithumb, South Korea’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange, asked the court for an injunction for seven Bitcoins that were still not returned after a payment error in February. The process initiated regarding the return of these assets, which corresponds to approximately 8 million dollars, escalated the tension between the stock exchange and a small number of users who refused to refund.
Payment error details
The incident started with a promotion organized by Bithumb on February 6. While 620 thousand won (approximately $460) was planned to be distributed to 249 winners within the scope of the campaign, the “BTC” option was entered by the staff by mistake. As a result of this error, it was recorded that 620 thousand Bitcoins were transferred to the system for each winner. Within a few minutes, digital assets with a total value of more than $40 billion appeared in Bithumb’s internal accounts.
Some users disposed of approximately 1,788 Bitcoins before the error was noticed. After these transactions, the exchange froze the accounts and the price in BTC/KRW parity dropped to 80 million won.
Bithumb reversed the erroneous transactions and recovered most of the coins sold. However, it was determined that a total of 12.3 billion won ($8.3 million) was not returned. It turns out that despite communication efforts over time, only seven Bitcoins have still not been returned to date.
Legal process and potential consequences
Bithumb asked the court for an injunction to prevent the relocation of assets. This measure, which is implemented before the lawsuit in local law, aims to prevent the debtor from transferring his assets elsewhere. It is also expected that a civil lawsuit will be filed on the issue at the end of the process.
Korean lawyers underline that similar events are considered within the scope of “unjust enrichment” and that the beneficiaries are obliged to return the goods. It is also stated that if crypto assets are sold, users may need to buy them again at the current market price and return them.
Experiences have shown that human error, the irreversible nature of blockchain transactions and the speed of transfers can quickly turn a small carelessness into a multimillion-dollar crisis.
Bithumb ranks second in terms of transaction volume in South Korea, after Upbit. The 24-hour trading amount was recorded as 388 million dollars in the latest data. Bithumb, one of the major players in the industry, provided an important example of the effects of system errors and human-caused problems on the crypto ecosystem.
