South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has initiated legal steps to recover 7 BTC remaining from a payout error that briefly saw 620,000 BTC sent out during a February promotion.
According to a report by Chosun Biz, Bithumb has filed for a provisional attachment — a court order that freezes assets pending a civil lawsuit — aimed at users who have not returned the mistakenly received funds. The error occurred on Feb. 6, when the exchange intended to distribute 620,000 won (about $420) to 249 event winners but an input mistake resulted in 620,000 Bitcoin being sent instead, momentarily valuing the transfers at roughly 62 trillion won ($42 billion). Bithumb reversed the transactions within minutes, but some of the coins had already been moved.
Bithumb said it recovered 99.7% of the overpaid Bitcoin that same day and covered the remainder — reported as 1,788 BTC that had already been sold — from company reserves. Since the incident, the exchange has contacted recipients individually and reclaimed most sold funds, but a small number of recipients have refused to return the remainder. Some recipients have argued they are not obligated to return the funds, citing the exchange’s mistake.
Chosun Biz notes those who keep the funds could face adverse rulings; under South Korean law, assets received in error are typically treated as unjust enrichment and must be returned. Cointelegraph contacted Bithumb for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The incident prompted action from regulators. South Korea’s Financial Services Commission ordered all crypto exchanges to reconcile their internal ledgers with actual asset holdings every five minutes to reduce delays in spotting discrepancies. An inspection found three of the country’s five major exchanges were only reconciling balances once a day, limiting their ability to respond quickly to errors.
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