Bithumb Sues Users Over 620,000 BTC February Glitch
Bithumb is taking legal action against users who refused to return Bitcoin accidentally distributed during a February platform glitch. The exchange recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly sent funds within 35 minutes.
Key Takeaway
Exchange glitches don't favor users — Bithumb's 99.7% recovery rate shows platforms can claw back windfalls fast.
Bithumb is pursuing court action against users who kept Bitcoin from a platform error that accidentally sent out cryptocurrency in February.
The glitch distributed roughly 620,000 BTC — worth around ₱2.62 trillion ($44 billion) — to between 249 and 695 users before the exchange caught the mistake. Bithumb locked down affected accounts by restricting trading and withdrawals, then clawed back 99.7% of the funds within 35 minutes. The price on Bithumb's platform crashed 16% during the chaos before normalizing.
South Korea's Financial Services Commission flagged the incident as evidence of broader weaknesses in the country's crypto infrastructure. Regulators said they would conduct on-site inspections if they found irregularities at the exchange.
The legal fight mirrors a similar case at PDAX, a Philippines-based exchange that experienced a pricing glitch allowing users to buy Bitcoin at ₱363,131 ($6,100). PDAX threatened lawsuits against users who exploited the error, arguing the underlying Bitcoin was never actually in the exchange's possession.
Bithumb's decision to sue holdouts sets a precedent for how exchanges handle user liability when technical failures create windfalls, with the exchange's 35-minute recovery window now heading to court.
This article was written based on reporting from CryptoPotato.
