**🇰🇷 South Korean Crypto Shock: Bithumb’s $40B Mistake**
South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange **Bithumb** is racing to recover funds after a **staff error** during a promo event sent customers **620,000 BTC (~$40B)** instead of **620,000 Korean won (~$423)** 💥.
The mistake happened on **Feb 6**, when prize amounts were entered in **bitcoin instead of won**. Out of 695 eligible users, **249 opened the reward**, briefly receiving more BTC than Bithumb itself owns. The exchange quickly froze accounts and reversed **99.7%** of the wrong credits, but around **₩13bn ($9m)** remains unrecovered after some users sold or withdrew funds.
About **86 customers sold ~1,788 BTC within 35 minutes**, causing a short-term price dip on Bithumb 📉. Authorities called the incident “catastrophic” for sellers, especially as BTC prices later rose.
The **Financial Supervisory Service (FSS)** has launched a full investigation, and **South Korea’s parliament** will hold an emergency hearing on **Feb 11** 🏛️. Legal experts remain divided on whether sellers could face charges under current law.
Bithumb apologized, stating there was **no hack or security breach**, and promised a full overhaul of its internal controls 🔐
