South Korean Regulator Probes Bithumb After $43 Billion Erroneous Bitcoin Credit

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched an investigation into Bithumb, one of the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, following a massive technical glitch.

The exchange mistakenly credited user accounts with approximately 620,000 Bitcoins—valued at roughly $43 billion—due to a manual error during a marketing bonus distribution where BTC was selected instead of Korean Won (KRW).

The erroneous distribution was 13 times larger than Bithumb’s actual reserves of 46,000 BTC. The mistake triggered a 15% flash crash in the Bitcoin-Won exchange rate as users attempted to sell nearly 1,800 Bitcoins within the first 20 minutes.

While Bithumb claims to have recovered 99.7% of the funds, the regulator is scrutinizing the exchange's internal controls and risk management protocols.