A crypto company, Bithumb, has confirmed that approximately 620,000 BTC, equivalent to about Ksh5.6 trillion, was mistakenly sent to 695 customers during an event reward payment process, prompting an immediate recovery effort.
In a statement issued on February 7, 2026, and updated at 04:30, the South Korean company, Bithumb, detailed the cause and timeline of the incident.
The company said the error occurred during the event reward payment process when a mistake was made in entering the amount of bitcoins, resulting in incorrect payments to some customers.
“During the event reward payment process, a mistake occurred in entering the amount of bitcoins, resulting in incorrect payments of bitcoins to some customers.”
According to the timeline provided, 695 people received event rewards at 19:00 on February 6. At 19:20, the event rewards were mispaid. By 19:35, trading and withdrawal blocking had started, and by 19:40, the blocking process was completed.
Recovery of Mispaid Assets
Bithumb stated that, through its internal control system, it blocked transactions and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the mispayment.
“More than 99% of the mispaid amount was recovered, and we were able to minimize the damage to our customers through quick action.”
The total amount of mispayment was 620,000 BTC. Recovery was completed for 618,212 BTC, representing 99.7 per cent of the total.
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Additionally, the statement confirmed that 93 percent of assets, including won and virtual assets that had already been sold, had been recovered, and that there was no external transfer of the mispaid Bitcoin.
The company said the number of coins stored in the wallet is maintained at 100 percent of the quantity displayed on the customer screen through strict accounting management, and that this is disclosed through quarterly asset due diligence conducted with external accounting firms.
Any BTC that cannot be recovered and has already been sold will be matched from the company’s holdings.
Market Impact and System Response
During the event payment process, some customers received an abnormal amount of Bitcoin. As certain accounts that received the bitcoins sold them, the price of Bitcoin temporarily fluctuated sharply.
Bithumb said it immediately recognised the anomalous transaction through its internal control system and quickly restricted transactions to the relevant accounts.
It reported that the market price recovered to normal levels within five minutes and that the domino anti-liquidation system worked normally, with no chain liquidation caused by abnormal prices.
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“We want to make it clear that this matter has nothing to do with external hacking or security breaches, and there is no problem with system security or customer asset management.”
Assurances to Customers
Bithumb said customer assets are being managed safely and that transactions, deposits and withdrawals are currently operating normally. It stated that there was no loss or damage to customer assets as a result of the incident.
“We will share all follow-up actions transparently and will be responsible until the end to ensure that not a single customer is harmed.”
The company added that it takes the situation seriously and will redesign the entire asset payment process and upgrade its internal control system to prevent recurrence.
It apologised for the inconvenience caused and said it would continue efforts to provide a stable and reliable trading environment.
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