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| 2026-02-10 10:20:35
crypto exchange-accident
FSS launches investigation into Bithumb's accidental bitcoin pay out: sources
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Financial authorities began a formal investigation Tuesday into Bithumb, a local crypto exchange, to determine how it was able to pay out over 60 trillion won (US$41.2 billion) in bitcoins it apparently did not have, industry sources said.
Regulators informed the crypto exchange Monday that an investigation will be conducted, three days after they conducted an on-site inspection, according to the sources.
"We are taking this case very seriously," an official from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said. "The FSS will take stern legal actions against acts that harm the market order."
On Friday, Bithumb erroneously sent 620,000 bitcoins, instead of the 620,000 won originally planned, to 249 customers in a promotional event, triggering a sell-off at the exchange.
Most of the missent bitcoins were retrieved immediately after the accident, but 1,788 tokens were already sold off, the crypto exchange said in a statement.
Centralized exchanges like Bithumb use a "book-entry trading system," in which exchanges record ownership and execute trades electronically within their internal databases, rather than recording every transaction on the public blockchain.
Such a system, if mishandled, could generate "phantom balances," resulting in a discrepancy between listed balances and actual reserves.
Bithumb held around 42,000 bitcoins as of end-September, of which all but 175 tokens were customer-entrusted crypto.
Tuesday's investigation also comes amid pending legislation on virtual assets at the National Assembly.
FSS Gov. Lee Chan-jin said in a press conference Monday that resolving issues related to "ghost coins" is crucial and that he will consider the findings of the Bithumb probe when revising the pending virtual asset bill.
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