South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says it has resolved an incident in which a promotional reward error credited certain user accounts with excess Bitcoin.
In a Sunday statement, the exchange confirmed it recovered 99.7% of the overpaid Bitcoin (BTC) on the same day the incident occurred. The remaining 0.3%, totaling 1,788 Bitcoin that had already been sold, was covered using company funds to ensure customer balances remained fully matched.
“Bithumb’s holdings of all virtual assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), are 100% equivalent to or exceeding user deposits,” the exchange wrote.
According to Bithumb, most of the excess Bitcoin was retrieved directly from accounts, while the portion already liquidated in the market required reimbursement from corporate reserves.
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Bithumb rolls out compensation plan
The exchange also announced some compensation measures. Users connected to the platform at the time of the incident will receive 20,000 Korean won ($15) each. Traders who sold Bitcoin at unfavorable prices during the disruption will receive full reimbursement of their sale value plus an additional 10% payment. The platform will also waive trading fees for all markets for seven days starting Monday.
The incident began on Friday when a system issue during a promotional event credited some users with an unusually large amount of Bitcoin, briefly causing sharp price swings on the exchange when recipients began selling the funds. The platform quickly restricted affected accounts and stabilized trading within minutes, preventing broader liquidations.
The exchange said the incident was not related to hacking and that no customer assets were lost, with deposits and withdrawals continuing as normal. While the company did not disclose the total amount involved, some users claimed roughly 2,000 BTC had been credited.
Related: South Korean lawmaker faces scrutiny over family ties to crypto exchange: Report
Centralized crypto exchanges face operational issues
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have continued to encounter operational problems. In June, Coinbase said account restrictions had been a major issue and reported reducing unnecessary freezes by 82% after upgrading its machine-learning systems and internal infrastructure, following years of complaints from users locked out of accounts for months without any security breach.
Similar concerns emerged during the Oct. 10 market sell-off, when Binance users reported technical difficulties that prevented some traders from closing positions at peak volatility. While the exchange said its core trading system remained operational and blamed broader market conditions for most liquidations, it later distributed about $728 million in compensation to affected users.
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