A cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea accidentally distributed more than 40 billion euros in Bitcoin to customers, briefly making them multimillionaires.
It had planned to give users a small symbolic reward, but due to a technical error, 2.000 bitcoins were transferred to each customer.
Bithumb apologized for the error and announced that it had recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins sent in error.
"We want to clarify that this issue has nothing to do with hacking or security breaches and there is no issue with system security or customer asset management," Bithumb said in a statement.
In an emergency meeting, South Korea's financial regulator said it would investigate the incident, writes BBC.
Any sign of illegal activity would trigger official investigations, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Among other things, Bithumb pledged to cooperate with regulators.
"We will take this accident as a lesson and prioritize customer trust and peace of mind over external growth," said CEO Lee Jae-won.
The company plans to pay compensation to all customers who used the platform at the time and will waive trading fees.
Also, Bithumb said it would improve verification systems and introduce AI to detect abnormal transactions.
Otherwise, the incident is likely to spark discussions about stricter regulatory controls in finance. /Telegraph/
