When users of the South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb logged in this week, many thought they were witnessing a dream or a hack.
Hundreds of customers suddenly found 2,000 BTC sitting in their accounts, an amount worth over $140 million each at the time. Within minutes, confusion turned into chaos, and the price of Bitcoin on the platform plunged as newly minted “billionaires” rushed to cash out.
What unfolded was one of the most extraordinary operational failures in the history of digital finance, a reminder that even in a hyper-automated industry, human error can still move markets.
A Typo With a $43 Billion Price Tag
According to Korean media reports, including the newspaper Chosun, the incident began during a routine promotional event in which users were supposed to receive a small cash reward of 2,000 South Korean won, or about $1.37.
But instead of entering “2,000 KRW,” a Bithumb staff member keyed in “2,000 BTC.”
In total, 695 users were accidentally credited with 620,000 BTC more than $43 billion at market value.
Importantly, this was not an on-chain transfer. The coins existed purely on Bithumb’s internal ledger, meaning no real Bitcoin was moved on the blockchain.
Five Minutes of Chaos
The error lasted just five minutes, but that was enough time for dozens of recipients to attempt to sell their “phantom Bitcoin.” Korean regulators estimate that users managed to offload more than $2 billion worth of the credited BTC before Bithumb froze activity.
The sudden sell-off created a flash crash on the exchange, sending Bitcoin’s price spiraling to around $55,000 locally, far below the global average, which hovered near $71,000 at the time.
Although the drop was isolated to Bithumb and did not impact global markets, it was a stark illustration of how sensitive internal systems can be to even brief disruptions.
Damage Control and Rapid Recovery
Bithumb moved quickly to unwind the error. By Saturday, the exchange reported recovering 618,212 BTC, or 99.7% of the mistakenly credited funds.
An additional 1,788 BTC proceeds from users who managed to sell before the freeze — were also clawed back.
The company stressed that no customer funds were compromised and that the event was not caused by hacking or any external breach. Instead, it labeled the incident a catastrophic internal control failure.
In a public statement, the exchange apologized and promised to redesign its asset distribution processes and reinforce internal oversight. Authorities in South Korea are reportedly reviewing the matter, given the scale of the error and the temporary market disruption it caused.
The Bigger Picture: A System That Leaves No Room for Mistakes
Events like this, rare, dramatic, and almost surreal, expose a critical truth about crypto platforms:
in a digital financial system where money moves instantly, even a small operational error can trigger billion-dollar consequences.
Centralized exchanges, despite dealing in decentralized assets, still rely on human-run administrative systems. A misplaced key, a wrong variable in a payout form, or a rushed approval can produce results that simply aren’t possible in traditional banking.
And although no real Bitcoin was lost here, the exchange will likely incur substantial financial and regulatory costs as it compensates for the BTC users who managed to liquidate during the glitch.
Even in Crypto, We Cannot Outsource Awareness
This incident is a reminder that crypto is not immune to mistakes, and sometimes the mistakes are massive.
We often talk about hacks, rug pulls, market volatility, or regulatory risk, but the industry rarely acknowledges the simplest and scariest vulnerability of all:
human error.
A single mistyped field created a $43 billion anomaly, minted hundreds of overnight “billionaires,” and briefly crashed a major exchange’s internal Bitcoin market.
That’s why in crypto, whether you’re a trader, builder, or casual user, you can never fully switch off your awareness. The tools are powerful, the markets are fast, and the stakes are high. Even trusted platforms can fail in ways no one expects.
If anything, Bithumb’s mistake should reinforce a lesson that applies to both centralized and decentralized finance:
Stay alert, stay informed, and understand the systems you rely on because even the biggest players can get it shockingly wrong.
