South Korea’s leading crypto exchange Bithumb has initiated provisional attachment proceedings to recover seven Bitcoin still outstanding from a mistaken payout earlier this year, Chosun Biz reported Thursday.
The incident occurred on February 6 when Bithumb accidentally distributed 620,000 BTC, worth over $40 billion at the time, to 695 users instead of the intended 620,000 won to 249 users due to an input error during an event payout.
The mistake was detected within 20 minutes, and transactions were halted. Bithumb has retrieved most of the funds through direct outreach, but some users have refused to return the assets.
The seven Bitcoin left were worth about 700 million won when the incident happened. Now, at today’s prices, the stash is valued at more than $500,000, or roughly 740 million won.
Legal experts say recipients are likely required to return the funds under unjust enrichment principles. Users who sold the Bitcoin may face higher costs to re-acquire the assets if prices have risen since the error.
Compensation plan
Following the incident, Bithumb said it would fully compensate customers after mistakenly distributing 620,000 Bitcoin.
Chief Executive Officer Lee Jae-won said affected users would receive compensation of 110%. In addition, all customers who accessed the platform during the incident would be given 20,000 won, while trading fees were waived for seven days.
The exchange said it was working with authorities and implementing system upgrades, including enhanced asset verification, multi-step payment approvals and AI-based monitoring. It also plans to establish a permanent 100 billion won customer protection fund.