Overview
- Bithumb was notified on Monday and the Financial Supervisory Service began a formal probe Tuesday after initial on‑site checks, warning of stern legal action if violations are found.
- An employee entered bitcoin instead of won during a Feb. 6 promotion, crediting about 620,000 BTC to 249 users; authorities say 86 customers sold some of the 1,788 BTC offloaded before a freeze.
- The exchange restricted trading and withdrawals on affected accounts within roughly 35 minutes, recovered about 99.7% of the misallocated BTC, and said the remaining ~125 BTC will be covered with company funds.
- Bithumb announced remediation that includes reimbursing users who sold at abnormally low prices at 100% plus 10%, a week of zero trading fees, and 20,000 won payments to users connected during the incident.
- Inspectors are examining internal controls, reconciliation practices, and potential breaches of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act as officials highlight systemic risks from off‑chain bookkeeping and signal tougher industry‑wide rules.