Beyond a ‘fat finger’: Bithumb and the hidden risks of crypto exchanges
A single input error created 620,000 ‘ghost bitcoins,’ exposing structural flaws in exchange-ledger systems
A bitcoin misallocation at South Korea’s major cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has laid bare structural vulnerabilities in centralized crypto trading, where internal ledger entries can become market-moving events within minutes.
The incident occurred during a routine event payout. An intended reward of 2,000 won per user was mistakenly entered as 2,000 bitcoin, resulting in about 620,000 BTC being credited to 249 customer accounts, according to the exchange.
Some users sold the assets…
