South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb accidentally credited 695 users with 2,000 BTC each after an internal staff member selected Bitcoin instead of Korean won during a promotional payout. The mistake led to a rapid sell-off on the exchange and a sharp drop in the platform’s BTC/KRW market.
Promotion meant to pay KRW, not Bitcoin
According to Bithumb’s statement, the “airdrop blind box” campaign was supposed to distribute rewards worth 2,000 to 50,000 KRW, roughly $1.4 to $35. During the payout process between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time on February 6, 2026, an employee entered the wrong payment unit and chose BTC instead of KRW.
That error resulted in roughly 2,000 BTC being mistakenly distributed to 695 users. The report put the total value at about $133 million to $141 million, equal to around 3% of the assets on the Bithumb platform. Once the balances appeared, about 240 users moved quickly and sold the Bitcoin they had received.
Heavy selling hit liquidity within minutes
The concentrated selling drained liquidity on Bithumb’s BTC/KRW pair. Within minutes, the market fell by 10% to 22%, with the price briefly dropping to around 81.5 million KRW, or about $55,000 to $60,000. The move was contained to the exchange, but the speed of the decline showed how a single operational mistake could distort order books in a short window.
Exchange says all mistaken BTC stayed inside the platform
Bithumb said its abnormal trading control system detected the issue about 20 minutes after the mistaken payout, around 7:20 p.m. local time. Within 35 minutes, the exchange restricted trading and withdrawals for all 695 affected users and activated a system designed to prevent cascading liquidations.
The exchange said it has recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly distributed BTC. Of the roughly 1,788 BTC sold by the 240 users, about 93% was recovered in KRW and other virtual assets. Bithumb also said none of the mistaken Bitcoin was transferred to external wallets, which kept the assets within the exchange’s own system and made recovery easier. South Korean regulators have opened an investigation and classified the incident as a “serious case”.