Bitcoin Forum

South Korean exchange CoinZest mistakenly gives away $5.3 million worth of crypto
https://news.bitcoin.com/airdrop-korean-exchange-send-btc/

"In what was supposed to be a routine airdrop, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange CoinZest is now forced to conduct a massive roll-back after mistakenly giving away around $5.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies, CryptoNews reports.

Last week, the exchange planned on airdropping hundreds of We Game Tokens (WGT) as part of a promotional event. However, users were instead credited with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Citing a “computer error” as the cause of the blunder, the exchange’s servers went offline as the team scrambled to restore the databases to their original state, and attempting to reach customers, many of whom had already made fiat withdrawals on the funds. Most of the funds have since been reclaimed, but the exchange states that around $2.6 million hasn’t been returned.

Many believe that consumers withdrew the funds as soon as they received the incorrect crypto. One industry expert believes that there is “no way CoinZest can get the funds back from customers who have already made withdrawals.”


https://ethereumworldnews.com/s-korean-exchange-sends-bitcoin-btc-in-error-during-airdrop/

"Initially, 400 members were meant to receive the WGT tokens but the computer error resulted in the aforementioned deposit of $5 Million worth of BTC, other cryptocurrencies and fiat into their wallets. About 10 members tried to sell about $530,000 worth of cryptocurrencies or to withdraw money denominated in the Korean Won."

Ouch, quite a costly mistake. Still, if they had KYC enforced properly, they may be able to recover some more of the money, even though they'll need good lawyers...
And their image also suffers, clearly they cannot be seen as proper professionals. And this may cost them some more million in lost customers (and fees).

I do not believe in such tings are legitimate airdrops.
Taking a quick look at my MEW, I have maybe 10 different penny coins that I cant withdrawl nor sell for BTC.
Too this day I see no purpose in giving away free airdrops and a lot of times these free coins turn into scams anyways.

You don’t believe in free airdrops?

Bro where have you been living, under a rock? We got loads of free BCH & BTG from forks off bitcoin.
I was cashing out free BCH for $2,000 each last year.

You didn't really read the op, did you ?


I don't know, I'm thinking of registering there. Lightning never strikes the same place twice but who knows ? ;D

Oh trust me when I say I read the OP.  I have been a big fan of free airdrops for a long time and requested free airdrops on twitter.
Here is part of my MEW from air drops:  
https://i.imgur.com/mzterug.png

Again these are worthless coins to me, but free coins is better then no coins I guess.

Cheers mate to your free coins but not everyone was fortunate to hold BTC at the time of the forks.
Congrats on cashing out at such high prices I know many who wish they would have done the same

If the funds had already been withdrawn from the exchange, it would be near impossible to get it back, even after taking legal actions.
And customer privacy has to be considered when using KYC documents, as they are not scammers or thieves.

So you understood that the topic isn't about airdrops really ?
It's about an exchange who fucked up and sent for $530,000 worth to 10 lucky users.

I am really wondering how something like this could've happened. There really must be some amateurs working at that exchange. And if I got the free BTC, I don't think I would have given it back.

FFS!!!
I should have started this in self-moderated mode, that would have avoided shitposts from spammers.

lol that's great. I'm sure somebody lost their job over this mistake. I probably wouldn't have noticed I got the airdrop, so I couldn't have taken advantage of it.

And that caused by an error in the system. This is not an airdrop. the team was leaving the system with the vulnerability and that sent the bitcoin and ethereum to the participants. Lol they can do that manually and that even better than used the crap system. 

Wow, of course that is a special kind of airdrop, even if he was unwanted. This airdrop has cost a lot of money and has done a lot of damage. Why i never get such an airdrop?  :P

Lol. I'm sure that this is a hard lessons for them to learn though, how lucky are those recipients, hahahaha. This could be a dilemma for those who have received it, they can be tracked if they have exchange it already to fiat though, so it's going to be interesting to see how it develops.

Exactly, the damage has been done, so I don't know if they can recover it though. Could be a legal battle, those who got it for sure will fight it off because it was a airdrop, and its not stealing. The company made a blunder and they have to pay the price for it.

Perhaps the question is, if you guys received it, Are you going to return it back?  ;D

This is sad that the money that were withdrawn can't be recover.

I feel bad that technical or their developer will take full responsibility for this glitch.

It was an extraordinary airdrop. Wish that they can recover more of their money.

Wow it was very surprising and very lucky for those who got the free coins. For the exchange parties it must be very detrimental to $ 2.6 million cannot be returned

Still very hard to believe ,what kinda mistake is that? For just airdrops ? Any if it does happened the receivers should return the coins because they are not the rightful owners

i wonder if coinzest can handle this loss. after all, it is a lot of money and that must first be earned. such a loss is almost as tragic as a hack.

Yeah, however, I believed that the exchange has deep pocket for all we know. Putting up a exchange needs a lot of capital although this is a big blow for them and specially for their investors behind, I'm sure they're already thinking of mitigating the loss.

It's a big money of course, but they need to move forward and don't let this hinder their goals to make more money in this business.

ebtc was the most legit airdrop at that moment.much people happy with this program ,they could earn more 10eth for each people while ebtc price rise alot.unfortunately difficult to find the same kind airdrop at this moment.

WO! that is a costly mistake that will not only cost them fortune but may cost them their customers as well because many of their customers will begin to doubt their credibility when it comes to security, nobody want to lose his or her asset,so this may lead to many trying to do away with the exchange.I really feel for the exchange, I just hope the exchange will find a way around it.

That's a big airdrop and costly mistake too, but according to article most users are willing to return the assets "Coinzest immediately contacted the customers and asked them to return their assets. The majority of the members promised to return [them]." That's a good news as they won't have to bare all the loss.

it was a mistake and maybe if one of them would not return it because it was pretty large amount and I could buy everything I wanted ;D but we see if 80% of people will return the funds

That is a terrible error that has happen. And because of the anonymity of cryptocurrency, something that has been withdraw will surely gone and can't be take back again, except the customers willing to return the fund they get.

It is click bait?  ;D. So it seems that it was not the biggest airdrop if they are not able to withdraw that funds, or?

lol kind of yes.
It seems like some of them were able to withdraw their funds. There's $2,6 M missing.

An error that cost them a very large amount, they are unlikely to get all the money back!

This is a serious loss on the side of the exchange. I am just trying to imagine its present state and that might make the team to be hard on their customers.
Come to think of it, did the customers who absconded with the money after converting to fiat, know about it prior the distribution? Just for them to have quickly think of withdrawing the fund,before the exchange becomes aware.
Yet some people were faithful enough to return the fund.