Bithumb Vows Full Repayment After Recovering 99.7% of Erroneous BTC Distribution

Exchange pledges to make users whole following major platform error.

The Recovery

Bithumb clawed back nearly all of the Bitcoin mistakenly distributed due to a system glitch. The platform secured 99.7% of the funds, a staggering recovery rate that prevented what could have been a catastrophic loss.

The Commitment

Leadership didn't stop at the recovery. They've publicly committed to covering the remaining 0.3% gap from company reserves. No user will be left holding the bag for the platform's operational mistake—a rare move in an industry where fine print often shields the house.

The Bigger Picture

This incident tests the resilience of major exchanges and their contingency plans. While the recovery is impressive, it highlights the fragile trust underpinning crypto custody—where a single line of buggy code can move millions in seconds. It's the kind of stress test traditional finance regulators would have a field day with, yet here it's just another Tuesday.

The swift action and full guarantee might just turn a PR disaster into a trust-building exercise. Or, for the cynics, it's a calculated cost of doing business—far cheaper than the regulatory fines and mass withdrawals a lesser response would trigger.

Individuals raise safety concerns amid Bithumb’s promotional reward mistake

The incident, which took place on February 6, 2026, erupted when Bithumb intended to award modest rewards — about 2,000 Korean won (roughly $1.40–$1.95) per user — during a promotional event.

Instead, a system or input error credited about 2,000 BTC per eligible account, resulting in an erroneous allocation of about 620,000 BTC, valued at more than $40 billion–$60 billion at prevailing market prices.

Bithumb explained that Bitcoin credited in excess was mostly acquired directly from user accounts, while the portion already liquidated in the market was reimbursed using Bithumb’s corporate reserves.

Apart from this, reports noted that the South Korean exchange announced compensation measures under which those who actively used the platform at the time of the incident WOULD be awarded 20,000 Korean won ($15) each.

Moreover, those who traded their Bitcoin holdings at terrible prices at the time of the issues were promised to recover their full sale amount plus an additional 10%. The company also pledged to waive trading costs across all markets for 7 days, commencing on Monday, February 9.

At this particular moment, reports reached out to the crypto exchange’s executives seeking answers to the problem’s root cause. In response to this request, the team stated that the incident was caused by a technical malfunction. This glitch occurred during a promotional event, leading to the distribution of an excessive amount of Bitcoin to some user accounts.

Consequently, the exchange experienced rapid price fluctuations as these users quickly sold the cryptocurrency. To stop this activity, Bithumb swiftly restricted user access, particularly for the affected accounts. Afterwards, the exchange initiated efforts to stabilize trading activities. Within minutes, everything was sorted out, thereby preventing significant sell-offs.

However, even after declaring the issue resolved, several individuals continued to raise concerns about the safety of their assets.

To calm its clients, Bithumb asserted that the issue was not the result of hacking and assured them that no client’s assets were lost during the incident. Additionally, the platform noted that deposits and withdrawals continued as usual.

Several crypto exchanges face technical issues, sparking concerns in the industry 

Recently, crypto exchanges operating under a centralized system have reported persistent operational issues. An example is Coinbase. In June, the online platform stressed that account limitations were a substantial problem. In attempts to solve this issue, the cryptocurrency exchange decided to reduce unnecessary account freezes by 82%. This was after it had announced enhancements to its infrastructure and machine-learning systems.

This improvement followed increased complaints from users who could not access their accounts for months without any reported security issues.

Another similar incident occurred during October’s market decline, when users on the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, faced technical challenges that led to significant losses for some traders amid peak volatility.

Following this incident, the exchange allocated about $728 million in compensation to affected users, even though it claimed broader market conditions led to most sell-offs, even though its main trading system worked just fine.

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