Crypto exchange Bithumb accidentally gave away $58 billion in bitcoin. Photo: Shutterstock

A large cryptocurrency exchange has blamed human error and poor internal systems for an error that led to $58 billion in Bitcoin being sent to its users instead of $600.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb held a promotional event where it planned to give away 620,000 won ($600) to 695 users.

But due to human error, the platform actually gave away 620,000 bitcoins instead, worth $58 billion.

While the company had planned to give its users about $1 each, it instead accidentally briefly made them multi-millionaires.

The mistake had major ramifications, with the price of Bitcoin dropping by 17 per cent in the aftermath of…