What if you received 2000 BTC?

[OcTradism]

That wouldn't excite me. Because it's not my money, it's just an amount defined on a centralized exchange so it has no real existence. It's very easy for them to notice the mistake and fix it. In such a situation, you wouldn't even be able to withdraw and use the money. Bithumb made a mistake here, but they took it back. As long as they prevent the funds from leaving the exchange, it doesn't matter how many coins are shown in the account.

Figures in user accounts on centralized exchanges are only numbers digitally on the screen. Even the exchange has an empty treasury, they can still credit such figures to user accounts. It shows risk of storing fund on centralized exchanges, as we don't control private keys, we don't have coins, and the figures we see on the screen might equal to nothing at the end if we can not get approvals from exchanges for withdrawal.

Bybyt did not suffer big loss, similar too Binance in their shit 10 October technical issues, but it's painfully and it's real that many of Binance and Bybit users suffered big losses when market crashes occured.

Such technical issues and individual mistakes on Binance and Bybit triggered market crashes with terrible Cascade effects and users are always most vulnerable with such exchange and market accidents.

[ancafe]

According to Bithumb, it had mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event around 7 p.m. on Friday, which translated into an average of 2,490 bitcoins worth 244 billion won (US$166 million) to a single user.

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

In a scenario like this you could become a billionaire, but it's unlikely to be successfully transferred. If it's not immediately transferred to a wallet when they realize it's a mistake, it's likely frozen, preventing you from withdrawing the bitcoins. It's possible this was a mistake in crediting the bitcoins to a user's account, and by the time they realize the error, it's impossible to withdraw them. Usually, the error is only made by one person, but if there are 249 people, it's probably not an accidental mistake as they may have done something wrong.

I have also thought about this before what if someone sent the wrong bitcoin to my wallet although this story is not plausible because it is rare for people to send the wrong bitcoin in the current conditions especially the amount is large enough that can make someone become a billionaire in such a short time.

[asriloni]

Bitcoin really isn’t doing very well these days but could this mistake be one of the reasons why it was dragged down even further?

Bithumb, one of South Korea's crypto exchanges, said Saturday it has recovered almost all of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent to users.

According to Bithumb, it had mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event around 7 p.m. on Friday, which translated into an average of 2,490 bitcoins worth 244 billion won (US$166 million) to a single user.

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

Your information is wrong. 2k btc is the total amount distributed to the all of random box even participants. The total participants are also 695 users, not 249 users. So each users received random amounts of bitcoin. the news about each user received 2k btc is fake.

To start with, their accounts were frozen so there was no way of withdrawing and spending the bitcoins. And from the news, the event happened on Friday and I don't think it is responsible for "why it was dragged down even further." A direct hack on a big exchange could affect the market noticeably, but the event at Bithumb wasn't really out of control of the exchange. Anyway, what attracted me was your heading. If I legitimately received 2000 BTC, I'd simply solve my problems. I mean those money can solve. There are still things that money cannot buy or solve.

It's not all of accounts were frozen. Some were able to withdraw it. that's why bithumb is preparing a legal action for those who withdraw the bitcoin came from staff mistake.

[LogitechMouse]

---
An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

If I remember correctly, it's 2000 BTC across all of the users who are eligible to get the prize and not 2000 BTC per user. Well, that mistake really did a flash crash towards Bitcoin on Bithumb and the price went down momentarily before going back to it's actual price.

Of course, I will be selling those Bitcoins if I got it whether by mistake or not just like what others did. Now the question is, selling those Bitcoins is very easy to do, but can I withdraw the money immediately because let's not forget that it's a centralized exchange, and they still have the power to freeze or lock your account if they see something fishy or wrong with it, and in this case, it's those Bitcoins. Based on what I saw, there are some who luckily transferred the assets onto another wallet, but majority haven't done it because the exchange owners responded immediately which is a good thing.

Anyway, let's not expect that we can sell it and transfer it especially if it happens on a large centralized exchange like Bithumb.

[summonerrk]

Bitcoin really isn’t doing very well these days but could this mistake be one of the reasons why it was dragged down even further?

Bithumb, one of South Korea's crypto exchanges, said Saturday it has recovered almost all of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent to users.

According to Bithumb, it had mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event around 7 p.m. on Friday, which translated into an average of 2,490 bitcoins worth 244 billion won (US$166 million) to a single user.

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

Well...The most important question is how to avoid prosecution for the person who appropriated the BTC. Those outside the exchange's jurisdiction are fine, but there's a caveat: it's best to be in a country that's as hostile to South Korea as possible, but still within the accounts allowed to trade and withdraw.  The algorithm is simple: I've been credited with bitcoins, I'll flee the exchange (I don't know whether to connect or not to connect "mixers" (I need to think about that). And when the exchange starts writing to my country's government agencies (KYC is 100% complete) to persuade me to return my funds, then the hostile government will say, "Fuck off." Of course, it's not a given that they won't be curious about what kind of rich guy I am. In an attempt to negotiate with them, the exchange will announce a reward, but it will be ignored because the country's political agenda is above such profits, even large ones. But the authorities will know who I am. And black hat methods like hiring a private individual to squeeze the bitcoin out of me are unlikely. Something out of the realm of fantasy.

[Z-tight]

If i was one of their customers, which i am clearly not, i would be sceptical about using this exchange after this incident. It says a lot about how flawed their system is, because they should never be making such a mistake. And based on that, they may be easy target for scammers in the future or a perfect spot for an inside job and then they'll go on to call it a hack, while customers suffer losses.

However, any funds in your centralized exchange is not yours, at least not until you have it in your self custodial address, which most of the customers in this case obviously couldn't do.

[Asuspawer09]

I mean, it was a real thing then, it might have some kind of effect on the market price of Bitcoin, since you said it was around 620,000 Bitcoin but it's a non custodial wallet so im assuming that most of the Bitcoin sent was recover since they could easily just freeze everyone's account that actually received it, unless most of the user's are able to withdraw that, then for sure they are instantly going to sell that Bitcoin and withdraw it.

It is possible to withdraw for sure since it is not restricted to withdraw in most of the platform im not sure about Bithumb how hassle to withdraw, but in popular platforms you could instantly withdraw money, or maybe do P2P anytime maybe if the platform instantly realize that mistakes meaning they could freeze the account fast, but if they wasn't able to for sure some accounts are able to withdraw to atleast send it to other address, im not sure if all of the withdrawals are verified, but maybe unless it is a very high amount it might go through.

[Furball808]

I have also thought about this before what if someone sent the wrong bitcoin to my wallet although this story is not plausible because it is rare for people to send the wrong bitcoin in the current conditions especially the amount is large enough that can make someone become a billionaire in such a short time.

I have seen it happen but unless someone connects the dots they might not know who sent it. Some do send it back but if it came from an exchange, some people might actually look for a way to take the bitcoins out. I’m sure that will be a lawsuit waiting.

[AprilioMP]

Doubts about this story are questionable. Delivery errors can occur if the person doing it is human, not a machine.
Receiving 2000 BTC for free would allow the recipient to stop working, as the current price of Bitcoin is not $7 but $70k.
If someone were to return it to the owner, they wouldn't be human but an angel. The price drop in question isn't due to this, in my opinion, but for other reasons. Only certain parties are prepared to buy thousands of Bitcoin at once.

[DeeppRockk]

I have seen it happen but unless someone connects the dots they might not know who sent it. Some do send it back but if it came from an exchange, some people might actually look for a way to take the bitcoins out. I'm sure that will be a lawsuit waiting.

a  lawsuit is the least of your worries...
i've seen this kind of thing happen a dozen times, especially in the early days before the big exchanges got their compliance departments filled up with ex-bankers. i remember this one case, must have been 2015 or 2016, where some guy i knew got a fat-finger deposit from a now-dead exchange, like 50 BTC. he thought he'd hit the jackpot and immediately tried to mix it and send it to some new wallet.

what he didn't get was that these exchanges have been using chain analysis for years, even back then.

they don't need a lawsuit, man, they just freeze your account, and then any account that your funds even touch on their platform, and then they share all that data with every other major exchange. you basically get blacklisted from the entire damn ecosystem. people think it's this cat-and-mouse game where they're one step ahead, but it's not.

you're playing checkers against a chess grandmaster who owns the whole board. my only advice is send it back, unless you enjoy having your funds locked for years and becoming a pariah on every CEX.

[MArsland]

Doubts about this story are questionable. Delivery errors can occur if the person doing it is human, not a machine.
Receiving 2000 BTC for free would allow the recipient to stop working, as the current price of Bitcoin is not $7 but $70k.
If someone were to return it to the owner, they wouldn't be human but an angel. The price drop in question isn't due to this, in my opinion, but for other reasons. Only certain parties are prepared to buy thousands of Bitcoin at once.

According to the latest information, Bithumb has returned 99.7% of the 620,000 BTC, with the remaining 1,788 BTC paid out from the compans reserve fund. This also reflects the Bitcoin market's recovery above 70,000. While not a factor in the price recovery, it did at least during the chaos caused by Bithumb employees, cause the Bitcoin price to plummet.

Doubts about this story are questionable. Delivery errors can occur if the person doing it is human, not a machine.
Receiving 2000 BTC for free would allow the recipient to stop working, as the current price of Bitcoin is not $7 but $70k.
If someone were to return it to the owner, they wouldn't be human but an angel. The price drop in question isn't due to this, in my opinion, but for other reasons. Only certain parties are prepared to buy thousands of Bitcoin at once.

You're missing out on so much that you're not keeping up with what's going on and what's been happening in this Bithumb mess.

A Bithumb employee picked 'BTC' instead of 'KRW' in a promotional tool, crediting 620,000 bitcoins to 249 to 695 accounts during a 'lucky box' event meant for $1.40 rewards. Users tried selling, crashing the exchange's bitcoin price 17% to $55,000, but Bithumb froze accounts in 35 minutes, recovered 99.7% of the credits, and pledged full reimbursement plus 10% extra for affected sellers. South Korean regulators responded with inspections, while on-chain data confirmed no reserves were touched, highlighting centralized exchange risks.

[CryptoYar]

[...]

Although you are correct that no expert would probably give back such large amount of money as free gift but exchange was able to get back 99.7 per cent of coins by locking the accounts in less than 35 minutes, but small number of users who did sell caused a 17 per cent quick crash on site.
According to my look at facts, local chaos was in fact due to this mistake although general market fall was caused by huge company selling by funds and company savings that happened right just before error was made. Personally, this event is a strong warning that even though Bitcoin system is perfect, big exchanges we use are open to nothing but simple typing error, had those people moved their money to private wallets at time, they could have really kept money.
To fix the situation, Bithumb has since offered to pay affected traders 110 per cent of their losses and even made trading on site free for week as way of getting back customer trust.

[Sunshine1525]

What I couldn't figure out is if some people are able to withdraw instantly and the withdrawal gets processed before they knew that they have fucked up? I read about this news hours back but I can't see where someone successfully withdraw the bitcoin.  

There is no real win here if no one is able to withdraw the Bitcoin, such incidents benefits no one but the exchange, because those Bitcoin never left.

If it weren't a mistake then a user has every right to worry that they can use or withdraw the funds, but then it was a huge amount of money mistakenly sent to users so it's not their money and the CEX has every right to withhold users account from withdrawal, so I don't see why users should be sad about not being able to withdraw since it's not their money.

I don't think you'll allow people to withdraw if it were your company, I guess you'll do everything possible to make sure that they're not able to withdraw just like that exchange did. Well this a prove that if it's not your keys it's not your coins.

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabb]

Bitcoin really isn’t doing very well these days but could this mistake be one of the reasons why it was dragged down even further?

Bithumb, one of South Korea's crypto exchanges, said Saturday it has recovered almost all of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent to users.

According to Bithumb, it had mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event around 7 p.m. on Friday, which translated into an average of 2,490 bitcoins worth 244 billion won (US$166 million) to a single user.

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

Did they recover ?

[vanesha]

Retiring early from exhausting work sounds appealing. I believe that 2,000 Bitcoin would be enough for me and even for several generations after me—perhaps up to seven generations without running out. However, it’s not only about owning that amount. If I had 2,000 Bitcoin, I would also need to seriously think about how those assets could be inherited securely without being stolen. In reality, holding such a large amount of Bitcoin also comes with major risks. What worries me most is the possibility that my wallet could be monitored. What if it’s the government? I think that would be quite dangerous. It’s not just about taxes—I believe the risks are extremely high.

[Davidvictorson]

If I legitimately received 2000 BTC, I'd simply solve my problems. I mean those money can solve. There are still things that money cannot buy or solve.

The keyword is legitimately.

In my estimation, if I grow to the capacity to legitimately receive 2000 BTC, I don't think I would have had any personal/individual problems. If there were any problems I would have at that time would be how to lobby the government of my country to pass bitcoin-favorable laws that would help the economy grow. It would be how to lobby, civil societies for them to see the positives of bitcoin so they can also campaign to the government for it. It would be how to organized bitcoin conferences in my region to bring together other likeminded individuals who are probitcoin to increase bitcoin awareness, infrastructure in the region. These would be some of the problems I would tackle.

[Xxmodded]

Bitcoin really isn’t doing very well these days but could this mistake be one of the reasons why it was dragged down even further?

Bithumb, one of South Korea's crypto exchanges, said Saturday it has recovered almost all of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent to users.

According to Bithumb, it had mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event around 7 p.m. on Friday, which translated into an average of 2,490 bitcoins worth 244 billion won (US$166 million) to a single user.

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

wooooow just wow if i received that i would have sold and run lol. however i dont think this is the reason for the state of bitcoin at the moment it has been dropping before that maybe could have contributed recently due to the amount but way already on the way down. more to the point some one is getting fired

[AYOBA]

Bitcoin really isn’t doing very well these days but could this mistake be one of the reasons why it was dragged down even further?

This issue of Bitcoin dumping has become very worst imagine that Bitcoin was closed $100k some weeks ago is now in $70k what a big surprise because if they told that Bitcoin will below the $100k I won’t believe, and the funny parts be say nobody knows what is really cause the market fluctuations. . But we hope everything recover soon; since normal not condition is permanent.

[Solodoski]

An employee mistakenly put BTC instead of KRW (korean won) and sent the money. They halted the activities of the users immediately. Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

The exchange took quick response on the issue if not this will be a different news entirely. If, I am to receive 2000 bitcoin now from an exchange through a mistake, ill withdraw the bitcoin instantly, until further news about the error will come up. Who wont withdraw money if they are giving bitcoins, only pretenders will claim they won.

Exchanges employees need to be very careful with what they do. Assuming i'm a member of the exchange board, that employee will be sacked, because the situation would have turned worst if the technical team did not act fast.

[DeeppRockk]

The exchange took quick response on the issue if not this will be a different news entirely. If, I am to receive 2000 bitcoin now from an exchange through a mistake, ill withdraw the bitcoin instantly, until further news about the error will come up. Who wont withdraw money if they are giving bitcoins, only pretenders will claim they won. Exchanges employees need to be very careful with what they do. Assuming i'm a member of the exchange board, that employee will be sacked, because the situation would have turned worst if the technical team did not act fast.

This isn't about morality. its about the terms of service you agreed to and compliance machinery. When you signed up, you consented to a ToS that lets them reverse erroneous transactions..

They have your full KYC data -name, address, ID-so even if you withdrew, they'd freeze your account and pursue legal recovery. Sacking the employee is a scapegoat for systemic risk failures; the exchange's algorithms failed to prevent the error, but their recovery protocols worked as designed. South Korea's FSC for example, is probably reviewing this now, and exchanges are mandated to maintain these controls.

its not personal, its about liability and adhering to AML/KYC laws. I've read enough ToS to know some section on 'Errors and Corrections' always reserves clawback rights, and they'll enforce it because their banking relationships depend on it. Thinking you could keep the money is naive - the system is engineered to protect the exchange.