What if you received 2000 BTC?

[tvplus006]

...What happened made me to understand that no exchange is safe and you could be hacked at any given time, as they usually said that we shouldn't trust any exchange instead we should move our coin to safe or none custodial wallet.

I still have a lot of questions regarding the security of Bithumb. But the most important thing is why 620,000 bitcoins were not placed on a cold wallet and how did it happen that such a large amount of BTC was mistakenly sent out due to the fault of just one exchange employee?

[notocactus]

I still have a lot of questions regarding the security of Bithumb. But the most important thing is why 620,000 bitcoins were not placed on a cold wallet and how did it happen that such a large amount of BTC was mistakenly sent out due to the fault of just one exchange employee?

They only have about 46,000 bitcoins and the 620,000 bitcoins airdropped mistakenly to some users are unreal. They're figures credited to accounts while these users could not withdraw these airdropped bitcoins from Bithumb.

Cold or hot wallet is only an issue when people withdraw their coins from Bithumb and Bithumb proceeds withdrawals for users. Before that processing time, what users see in their accounts on their computer/ laptop/ mobile screens are only numbers, not actual bitcoins or altcoins.

Is it actually fault or just their game set up to dump Bitcoin market?

[Mame89]

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?

This is why exchanges aren't the best place to store assets. Fortunately, the error was made by a Bithumb employee who quickly froze the user. Imagine the sudden freezing of your funds without any error.

In this case a Bithumb employee mistakenly sent funds during an airdrop to several users. They were supposed to send a specific token, but instead sent 2000 BTC to hundreds of users. This error caused the Bitcoin/KRW price on Bithumb to drop about 10% below the general market price. This was a fatal promotional blunder the intention of a promotion turned into a fatal error. However, the case was eventually resolved and 99.7% of the mistakenly sent Bitcoin was returned. If you were one of the users who randomly received Bitcoin, I would probably have suffered the same fate as them unable to make much money with the assets because they immediately froze my account.

[MinoRaiola]

I think that the number of BTC sales on Bithumb was small and there was no mass withdrawal from the exchange due to the fact that not all users were online and could not react in a timely manner to such a change in their wallet balance. And by the time they found out about this incident, Bithumb had almost completely refunded the mistakenly transferred BTC.

That is right, they recovered more than 97% of the coins, according to media reports. So it wasnt really many that were "lost", or that they now have to fight for. The shitstorm in the media was worse than what actually happened. The 3% of users with bitcoins will probably have to answer why they did something with the coins. These are uncomfortable questions and answers. The story will soon be forgotten and Bitcoin will continue.

[OgNasty]

I would be pretty terrified if I received 2000 BTC randomly.  That is too much money to have to be responsible for.  Not to mention I would wonder why it was sent and if I was being setup for something.  It would be much preferred if any random BTC I was sent was below the gift tax amount.

[tvplus006]

They only have about 46,000 bitcoins and the 620,000 bitcoins airdropped mistakenly to some users are unreal. They're figures credited to accounts while these users could not withdraw these airdropped bitcoins from Bithumb...

Nevertheless, Bithumb in its release recognizes the fact of the sale of 1,788 BTC, and the fact that these funds were withdrawn from the exchange, which does not allow them to be returned at the moment. So as we can see, the withdrawal from the exchange was still carried out, although not in BTC, but in the equivalent of various altcoins, mainly in stablecoin.

[Hatchy]

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?

What's the use of imagining anything with money that's not your? Even if the accounts were not frozen of which they were, don't forget it's a centralized exchange where definitely your kyc would be on their data base. So you simply won't be stupid enough to think about stealing the sent funds.. you would face legal actions that may cost your a fortune. Best thing to do is forget its there and try to get information on how the coins got to your exchange accounts. If one is genuine he would have seen the headlines about the exchange. At least they noticed the mistake as soon as possible and were able to sort it out by freezing accounts.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

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?

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.

But do you know and agree that 90 or more percent of life's issues can be solved with money? Money can buy wisdom as we know it, but just as wisdom is a defence, money also is a defence and there are just a few things wisdom can do that money can't do.

It is unfortunately for the users who received the bitcoins that their account were immediately frozen so they can not withdraw the bitcoin, but I want ask, if those bitcoins were internally sent to the participants which means the exchange still have full custody of the coins since it's a centralised exchange, why are they saying they are yet to recover all the bitcoins back since what they have in those accounts the money was sent to is just numbers,? the real bitcoin is still in their custody and the only time the bitcoin will move into the custody of the users if they withdraw which unfortunately the exchange didnt allow...

Anyways, if I received such amount of bitcoin and in this same manner, it's completely useless to me if the exchange won't allow withdrawal, I would simply assume I never received such because in the end, I have no choice but to have the exchange take it back. But if I received such in my private self custody wallet, to God be the glory but I pray I have the heart to return it back especially if its sent by mistake.

[nakamura12]

I'd return it to the rightful owner and maybe you will get a reward for being honest. If it's received in a centralized exchange then there's no worry since they can just freeze the account and solve it so there's no need to do it yourself and wait until they sent you the correct amount. For different situation where I were given or won 2000 Bitcoin then i would use it to make my living space upgrade and start a store and the rest will be saved or for emergency.

[Smartvirus]

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?

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?

What happened with the Korean exchange doesn’t have anything to do with the current dump in the Bitcoin market. It’s normal for Bitcoin to pump and dump and even before that error transfer, Bitcoin hasn’t being doing so well since the eve of last year. It’s being on a steady decline although, it pumped a little at the beginning of the year but, it later started dumping and dumping hard.

The Korean based exchange was said to have recovered all the BTC that was sent to all the wrong wallets. It was an internal transfer and as such, you can’t get any lucky with that, the coin was still with the exchange and that’s how easy it was for them to reverse it.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

What happened with the Korean exchange doesn’t have anything to do with the current dump in the Bitcoin market. It’s normal for Bitcoin to pump and dump and even before that error transfer, Bitcoin hasn’t being doing so well since the eve of last year. It’s being on a steady decline although, it pumped a little at the beginning of the year but, it later started dumping and dumping hard.

Bitcoin is not a pump and dump cryptocurrency, and this makes Bitcoin totally different than thousands of altcoins in this market.

Bitcoin is volatile and it can rise or fall with high volatility but it's not accurate to call Bitcoin as pump and dump. It is not a pump and dump coin by creation while altcoins were created, launched and used to steal bitcoin and money from us. To do that, altcoin founders, developers to altcoin market makers use pump and dump schemes for manipulating altcoins.

The purposes behind the scene for Bitcoin and altcoins are very different.

Altcoins are similar to Dogecoin pump and dump by the art of deception.
Dogecoin & Wolong: The game of deception.

[goldkingcoiner]

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?

I am not surprised they stopped the users from taking that coin.

It is just an internal error which highlights just how much control centralized platforms have over their user's wallets. There was no way the users would be able to withdraw that coin without the say of the exchange.

But also it shows how dangerous a single mistake can be. Especially in the centralized hands of a single entity.

[barbara44]

Honestly, if there was a reward for returning it back then that's great, but in any case I would just give it back and do nothing if anything like that happened to me. Yes I am in huge debt, but my parents thought me that only money that you should have is the one you earned by hard work.

If you risked something or did something working hard, then you earned that money and earned money is the only money you should be getting. If it's just from scams or anything like this, then I would just give it back, I wouldn't even bother moving it out, just let it stay until they take it back. Because I have belief that if you steal money from someone, there will be karma style justice that money will come out of you in a worse way.

[Ahli38]

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.

The error did not occur on the Bitcoin network. It all happened on the centralized exchange. The exchange's error had no effect on the drop in Bitcoin prices because they immediately took preventive measures by suspending user activity on their exchange. So I personally think that if the incident was handled properly immediately after the error occurred. But if the users had a chance to sell their Bitcoin massively then it could have affected the price of Bitcoin. But I think the exchange could still hold its users accountable considering that it has data on each user and even has the authority to contact them. And most likely the exchange still has a chance to return their funds through various efforts they can make.

Can you just imagine if you were one of the users who randomly received that amount of bitcoin?

I personally think that this doesn't mean anything because the incident occurred in a centralized system. Unless the incident occurred in a decentralized system or even on-chain into a wallet, then I might be happy. But I might also be cautious about it because the Bitcoin that entered the wallet could have come from illegal activities. So I personally might leave it alone for the time being until there is clarity about where it came from.

[rat03gopoh]

Nevertheless, Bithumb in its release recognizes the fact of the sale of 1,788 BTC, and the fact that these funds were withdrawn from the exchange, which does not allow them to be returned at the moment. So as we can see, the withdrawal from the exchange was still carried out, although not in BTC, but in the equivalent of various altcoins, mainly in stablecoin.

I didn't see any mention in the article that users withdrew any of the assets they sold. Am I missing something?
Here's a translated version:

99.7% of the overpaid Bitcoins were recovered immediately on the day of the incident, and the 0.3% (1,788 BTC) that had already been sold were invested with company assets to ensure 100% asset consistency.

My local news reports that only 125 BTCs have not been recovered, which gives the perception that users have successfully withdrawn to the external wallets or it just the valuation of the loss in BTC. https://coinvestasi.com/berita/gegara-salah-transfer-bitcoin-exchange-korsel-ini-diselidiki-regulator#:~:text=Meski%20demikian,ditarik%20kembali.

[SmartGold01]

[...]

With worker accidentally sending 2,000 Bitcoin to people instead of small cash prize, total of billions of dollars were created fake coins that exchange did not even really have, and 695 accounts were immediately locked and money was gotten back in couple of hours.
Although Bithumb is also offering money back to those who lost their money during resulting price drop in form of 10 percent bonus, fact they can instantly shut accounts and cancel trades shows end user is under power of internal rules of exchange. In order to stop risks of human error or automatic account locks, most safe way is to trade on exchanges and move your long term savings to private hardware wallet where you are in full control of your own keys.

Of course every single trader should be able to understand the risk of keeping their investments on exchange or not even moving out their money from exchange because most time when there is an internal hack or bugs it's surely affects those who leave their profits back on exchange. The important thing is to be able to understand when is to move out their profits from exchange and never leave them to keep accumulating.

[virasisog]

Where did the missing portion go?
The accounts that participated in the event where frozen, and it happened in a centralized exchange, they could control the transactions and non of the prize where withdrawn.
So does this means that the missing portion was taken by transaction fee when the participants tried to convert their prize into fiat? or did we miss some info?

[Zanab247]

This is the reason they keep advising newbies not to carry out any decentralized transaction when you know you are under the alcoholic influence, because this is the outcome of the result by sending BTC to wrong address which is very hard to recover as decentralized exchange is concerne. You think the person or people that received the BTC is from this forum? No, assume the person that send the BTC to wrong address is a member of this forum that is what will make you to feel the person that received the BTC may be from this forum, moreover I don't think the forum users will have such mind to keep such amount of BTC that worth billions in their wallet.

This is a lesson to those BTC users not to carry out any BTC or other digital transaction in the influence of alcohol, because this is the kind of result they will receive at the end which is painful.

[Nathrixxx]

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?

I thought about this and I look at how possible could it have been, a larger number are involved in each sum of amount included and then you tell me that there's a serious mistake in this manner, how did they all got to drop their BTC address instead of the local currency account details, there are some things that needed to be probe, because we are not this doubt and we know how people can be so malicious in giving excuse to what they deliberately do wrong.

[Faisal2202]

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?

I would not be able to do anything because they instantly blocked everyone's account. But if they had not blocked accounts, I would have sold the amount because the money in my account is mine haha. At least at first glance, I would have gone crazy because the amount they sent is not small. 2490 BTC in my account haha, I would have gone crazy for sure.

I can only wish to receive such a huge amount in my non-custodial wallet. What if they had asked for a wallet address, not from the exchange? Well, that's why they always ask for a UID. Maybe the mistake might not have happened in the first place if they had asked for a non-custodial wallet address, because at least the network could tell them something was wrong.