SEOUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) – South Korea’s Bithumb said on Wednesday that serious flaws had left the crypto exchange’s internal system susceptible to potential sabotage and failed to prevent an erroneous transfer of more than $40 billion in assets last week.

The country’s second-largest virtual asset exchange said it accidentally gave away about 620,000 bitcoins to customers during a promotional event, instead of 620,000 won ($426), triggering a 17% slump in bitcoin’s price.

Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won said the giveaway amounted to 15 times the exchange’s holding of 42,000 bitcoins, largely because a lag of about 24 hours in processing transactions delayed updates to the balance of virtual assets.

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