Crypto company accidentally sends $40 billion worth of bitcoin to users

A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange apologized Saturday after accidentally transferring more than $40 billion worth of bitcoin to users, briefly sparking a selloff on the platform.Bithumb said it accidentally sent 620,000 bitcoins, currently worth more than $40 billion, and blocked trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected users within 35 minutes after the error occurred on Friday.

According to local reports, Bithumb intended to send about 2,000 won ($1.37) to each customer as part of a promotion, but accidentally transferred about 2,000 bitcoins per user.“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion caused during the distribution process of this (promotional) event,” Bithumb said in a statement released Saturday.The platform said it had recovered 99.7 percent of the bitcoins accidentally sent, and that it would use its own assets to fully cover the amount lost in the incident.

It admitted that the error briefly caused “sharp volatility” in bitcoin prices on the platform as some recipients sold the tokens, adding that it brought the situation under control within five minutes.

The charts showed that the token’s prices briefly fell 17 percent to 81.1 million won on the platform late Friday. The platform emphasized that the incident was “not related to external hacking or security breaches.”

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, sank this week, wiping out gains from US President Donald Trump’s victory in November 2024.