South Korean crypto exchange races to recover $40bn of bitcoin sent to customers by mistake | South Korea
South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange is scrambling to recover more than $40bn of cryptocurrency after accidentally crediting customers with 620,000 bitcoins during a promotional event last week.
Bithumb said it had corrected most of the mistaken credits, but that about 13bn won ($9m) remained unrecovered after some recipients sold or withdrew the funds before the error was detected.
The mistake occurred on 6 February, when an employee entered prize amounts in bitcoin rather than Korean won during a “random box” promotional event. The plan had been to send a total of 620,000 won ($423) in prizes to 695 qualifying customers, but the employee instead sent 620,000 bitcoins ($42bn). Of those eligible, 249 opened their…
