Bithumb Internal Error Credits Excess Bitcoin, Triggers Market Volatility

South Korean exchange Bithumb experienced a promotional-system error that mistakenly credited some user accounts with excessive amounts of Bitcoin, prompting immediate sell pressure and sudden market volatility, according to early reports ^[1][5].

Some outlets reported the incident involved extremely large sums, with coverage saying as much as $44 billion was sent to users during the glitch; Bithumb temporarily halted affected services to investigate the issue ^[4][1].

Bithumb later said it reclaimed 99.7% of the overpaid Bitcoin and used company funds to cover the remaining shortfall, including 1,788 BTC that had already been sold, per Cointelegraph and aggregated reports ^[6][3].

The exchange also implemented customer remediation measures, offering compensation and fee waivers to affected users while restoring systems and balances, according to reporting on the recovery steps ^[2][6].

Reporting indicates Bithumb recovered the majority of the excess coins and covered outstanding losses, and the exchange has taken compensation steps for users as it works to restore confidence after the error ^[6][2].