Bithumb’s $40 Billion Blunder: A Comedy of Errors in Crypto

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In a spectacular display of technological ineptitude, the illustrious South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has attributed its unintended 620,000 Bitcoin giveaway to a series of unfortunate system flaws. One might wonder if they were perhaps using an abacus instead of modern technology.

Bithumb Mistakenly Gave Away 620,000 BTC Instead Of 620,000 Won

On a fateful Friday, Bithumb, the second great titan of digital asset exchanges in South Korea, found itself at the centre of a comical debacle, where it inadvertently distributed 620,000 Bitcoin during a promotional event-an amount that could make even Midas reconsider his touch.

This little mishap was worth more than $40 billion, while the intended giveaway was merely a trifling 426 dollars. Realizing their blunder, the good folks at Bithumb sprang into action, pausing trading and withdrawals for the 695 hapless customers affected within a mere 35 minutes. Quite the sprint!

In a twist worthy of Shakespeare, the platform managed to reclaim most of the erroneously dispatched BTC, but not before some clever users had flipped their newfound wealth for profit, proving that fortune favours the bold-or the incredibly lucky.

According to reports by Reuters, the source of this absurdity lay in a grievous flaw in the exchange’s internal system. Such deficiencies left the platform wide open to potential sabotage and allowed for this ludicrously erroneous transaction to slip through the cracks.

The esteemed CEO Lee Jae-won revealed the shocking truth: Bithumb only held a paltry 40,000 BTC at the time of the mistake, meaning they had just given away a staggering 15 times their reserves. This monumental transaction was facilitated by a delightful 24-hour lag in processing that rendered the exchange blissfully unaware of their dwindling assets.

The sheer magnitude of the giveaway caused a 17% nosedive in Bitcoin’s price on Bithumb, sending traders into a frenzy. Although the exchange managed to retrieve most tokens, a rather cheeky 1,786 BTC were traded before the alarm bells rang. South Korean regulators have chimed in, declaring that those who sold these coins must return them. Fair is fair, after all!

Bithumb has graciously offered a meager 20,000 Won (a princely $13.60) as compensation for all customers present at the time of this debacle, alongside a promise to waive trading fees-truly an act of benevolence in such turbulent times.

In unrelated news, profit-taking on the Bitcoin network has been plummeting recently, as noted by the ever-watchful analysts at Glassnode. One can only imagine the sighs of relief from those holding onto their investments.

As illustrated in the above graph-a veritable masterpiece-the 90-day moving average (MA) of the Bitcoin Realized Profit/Loss Ratio suggests that while profit-taking is still the primary mode of distribution, the scales are teetering precariously, with profits only just edging out losses. If this trend continues, we might see the ratio testing the ominous 1.00 threshold in the near future.

“Historically,” explained Glassnode with a sage nod, “a sustained break below 1 has coincided with broad-based capitulation, where realized losses outstrip profit-taking across the market.” How delightful!

BTC Price

In a fitting end to this farce, Bitcoin has retraced some of its recent recovery, languishing at the $66,500 mark. One can only hope that future promotions come with a more robust system and fewer zeros.

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2026-02-11 20:41