Bithumb in South Korea just made the biggest mistake in crypto history: they accidentally sent $44 billion in Bitcoin to a bunch of random people. One of the dumbest ops fails in the history of crypto. On February 6, 2026, they ran a “Random Box” promotion that was supposed to hook 695 lucky people with 2,000 Korean won each (about $1.40). But no, some genius typed “BTC” instead of “KRW,” so each account got 2,000 whole Bitcoins. That’s a total of 620,000 BTC, which is $44 billion at $70,000 each. Everyday traders blinked and saw dashboards worth millions of dollars. Crazy.
Started at 7 p.m. local time. Balances shot up to 196B won ($143M) each, and 240 users freaked out and hit the sell buttons. Bithumb’s own charts? Before alarms went off, BTC dropped 17% to 81M KRW. They saw the mess in 20 minutes and locked down trading, withdrawals, and transfers for those accounts 35 minutes later. Their “domino liquidation blocker” worked like a charm, getting back 99.7% of the money, or 617,914 BTC, from users who were already relaxed. Still looking for ~125 BTC ($7.2M) from the speed demons; promising refunds for losses that can be proven.
Lee Jae-won, the CEO, quickly took ownership of it: “Total human screw-up in the reward setup—no hacks, no breaches, wallets fine.” All of them stayed on their own ledger, and there were no chain moves. Damage control? Every active user gets 20,000 won ($13.66), free trades for a month, and VIP promo benefits. Loss-makers get make-goods with a timestamp. Nailed the recovery, and BTC stayed above 104M KRW there.
There were a lot of watchdogs. The FSS emergency meeting on Saturday slammed “virtual asset weak spots” and called for full audits of all exchanges. The KFTC is looking into the rules and controls for promotions, and fines are likely if they find negligence. Fits with Seoul’s crackdown after 2024: real names and an AML hammer. Bithumb’s promising bulletproof fixes include multiple checks, AI snitches, and more in-depth audits.
Shows how small the margins are in crypto. One fat finger can turn pocket change into the end of the world, begging for automations that are foolproof. Bithumb has 20% of Korea’s $150 billion daily volume. There was no worldwide splash; freeze saved the day. Twitter and Discord? Meme fest (“Bithumb lottery glitch”), angry posts (“my stolen mil!”), and props for the save. People who lost money in the sell-off are hiring lawyers to test the fine print on glitch bucks.
In Korea, where 15 million people own crypto, trust is low because of the BTC winter. Upbit et al sweating as Bithumb’s mess pushes for TradFi-level safety nets. It feels like Mt. Gox, but without the chain scars. Their moves—freeze fast, recover most, comp heavy—are a good plan, but regulators might stop them from doing it. Tip: Check your balance twice, and don’t freak out if something strange happens. Crypto’s glitch paradise: billions of dollars are hidden in typos. Bithumb gets back to work; the markets yawn. There’s a glitch in the system, so keep going.
