South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has asked a local court to freeze seven bitcoins valued at approximately $8 million, which has not been returned after a payment error in February. The move intensifies a dispute with a small group of users who refused to return the funds.
The exchange said it initiated a provisional seizure, a pre-suit step that prevents a debtor from moving assets, according to local media. A civil case is expected to follow.
It all started on February 6, when the exchange ran a promotion aimed at paying 620,000 won (~$460) to 249 winners. Staff mistakenly entered “BTC” instead of “KRW,” leading the system to credit each winner with 620,000 bitcoins in Bithumb’s internal ledgers. This was a human error that briefly made it appear that the exchange had created over $40 billion worth of BTC.
Within minutes, some users sold approximately 1,788 BTC before Bithumb froze the accounts, dropping its BTC/KRW price to the low 80 million won ($54,000) range.
The exchange reversed most of the inflows and recovered most of the coins sold, but about 12.3 billion won ($8.3 million) remained outstanding. That figure has since fallen to seven bitcoins after months of outreach activities.
Legal experts in Korea, according to local reports, say that these cases are considered unjust enrichment, meaning the recipients must return the assets. If coins were sold, users may need to buy them back at higher prices to pay.
This episode highlights how human error, combined with the speed and irreversibility of crypto transactions, can turn minor errors into multi-billion dollar crises.
Bithumb is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, according to Coingecko, with a 24-hour trading volume of $388 million, behind only Upbit, which recorded $788 million during the same period.
