Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, announced plans to compensate customers affected by a recent internal transfer error. The exchange mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users during a promotional event, leading to panic selling and a temporary price drop.
Affected users, who received an average of 2,490 bitcoins each worth $166 million, will be fully reimbursed for their losses. Additionally, Bithumb will provide an extra 10 percent compensation and waive trading fees on all listed assets for a week.
Following the incident, Bithumb initiated a crisis management system, recovered most of the mistakenly transferred bitcoins, and formed a task force to address investor losses. The company attributed the error to an employee who incorrectly typed the payment unit as “BTC” instead of “Korean won.”
Bithumb’s CEO issued an apology, promising to take full responsibility for the mistake. The Financial Supervisory Service will investigate the exchange’s user protection measures and the possibility of recovering the bitcoins sent in error.
