Crypto exchange accidentally sends $40bn worth of Bitcoin to users

In a stunning mistake, Bithumb, South Korea's second-biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has mistakenly sent its users 620,000 Bitcoins, worth more than $40 billion-instead of 620,000 South Korean won, a sum of about $423 as promotional rewards.

The error happened on February 6 when one of its staff mistakenly sent Bitcoins instead of the Korean currency as a reward to participants in a promotional event for users. The rewards targeted 695 users in total.

From them, 249 opened their reward boxes and received the Bitcoin.

According to a company statement, Bithumb has managed to recover most of the mistakenly credited Bitcoins. However, about $9 million worth of Bitcoin remains unrecovered, as some recipients sold their coins or withdrew funds before the error was detected.

The Governor of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, Lee Bok-hyun, called the situation "devastating" for users who sold the reward Bitcoins, pointing out that the incident also exposed internal control failures at the exchange.

Experts have also warned that such users who sold the Bitcoins could face criminal charges, as cryptocurrencies at present do not have any legal status under Korean criminal law.

Bithumb reports that 99.7 % of the Bitcoins have been reclaimed, and the company has apologized while reversing its internal reward-distribution process.

Meanwhile, 86 users sold a total of 1,788 Bitcoins, and Bithumb is now contacting them individually, asking them to return the equivalent value.