It happened during a “Random Box” promotion where winners were supposed to receive a tiny reward worth only a few thousand won. Due to a configuration mistake, however, hundreds of users saw very large BTC credits on their accounts because the unit was entered as “BTC” instead of “won.”
This caused a brief panic sell-off on the exchange and temporarily pushed the BTC price there sharply lower before Bithumb froze trading and withdrawals on the affected accounts. According to reports, their internal controls reacted quickly and they were able to recover about 99.7% of the mistakenly credited Bitcoin.
Incidents like this show that operational risk can be just as dangerous as hacks for centralized exchanges. Even small system errors can create serious market disruptions. It also reminds users why keeping large funds on exchanges always carries some level of risk.
This is the craziest incident I've ever read about.
Bithumb accidentally sent thousands of BTC to users who were supposed to receive Won, but instead received Bitcoin. This is one of the most absurd exchange incidents this year, in my opinion.
How could it not be? Hundreds of Bithumb users received free Bitcoin. Initially, Bithumb intended to reward users with thousands of Won. However, due to employee negligence Bithumb sent thousands of BTC instead of Won. As a result accounts were frozen and withdrawals were blocked. This case demonstrates that internal exchange errors can distort prices, but Bitcoin remains secure globally. The lesson we can learn from this case: Not your keys, not your coins.
My question to you If you were one of those who received free BTC, would you sell it immediately or hold it?
