Bithumb confirms a payment error after abnormal Bitcoin transactions

Bitcoin sinks into rough waters. The crypto market faces constant selling pressure. Yet, some storms come from within the industry itself. Operational errors, sometimes monumental, push the asset even further down. The latest is staggering. It shakes South Korea and its exchange Bithumb. Its magnitude questions the foundations of the entire crypto system.

Bitcoin: the distribution error that almost made everything collapse

Friday, February 6, Bithumb turns a simple promotion into a disaster. The South Korean exchange intended to offer $1.50 to certain users. A simple decimal point error changed everything. Result: 695 clients each received 2,000 bitcoin. A staggering total of 620,000 BTC. The value exceeded $44 billion at that time. 

Influential trader Scott Melker immediately alerts on X. He writes: 

Bithumb accidentally distributes about 2,000 $btc instead of $1.50 rewards, triggering immediate sales and a flash crash to ~55,000 $ on the exchange.

Panic quickly sets in among the beneficiaries. Some sell the unexpected haul without delay. This rush creates an instant market imbalance. Bithumb quickly activates its emergency protocols. In just thirty-five minutes, the affected accounts are blocked. The exchange later announces recovery of 99.7% of the wrongly credited assets. 

This rapid response limits direct damage. But the incident exposes a gaping hole in internal procedures. Crypto investors’ trust takes a serious hit. This event reveals a worrying systemic vulnerability.

Crypto market: when exchanges become the weak link

The ensuing flash crash is spectacular and revealing. On the Bithumb platform alone, bitcoin plunges 17%. Its price briefly touches $55,000. This localized crash recalls a much larger episode. In October 2025, the market experienced its worst crash in years. 

Massive liquidations then tested all infrastructures. Binance, Coinbase, Kraken… each giant wavered under pressure. The account CryptosR_Us sums up this general debacle. 

The tweet goes viral. It describes the collapse of centralized exchanges during the worst liquidations. Binance, Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken: all wavered. Their infrastructure failed at the worst moment. Traders found themselves blocked, powerless against plummeting markets. This harsh statement sums up the vulnerability of an entire system.

Today, Bithumb’s error proves that a single bug is enough. It can trigger a storm across an entire market. South Korean regulators react strongly. They immediately mention the “vulnerabilities and risks of virtual assets.” 

An on-site inspection of Bithumb is seriously considered. The credibility of the entire crypto sector is at stake.

The crypto industry faces its greatest trust crisis

Bithumb desperately tries to contain reputational damage. Its official statement heavily emphasizes a crucial point. Management declares: 

We want to clarify that this incident is not related to any external hack or security breach, and there is no security issue with our systems or management of customer assets.

Source: Bithumb Statement

Yet, these assurances sound particularly hollow today. The error is human, but control systems seriously failed. This incident occurs in an already highly tense context. Exchanges are struggling to regain lost trust. 

Coinbase recently acknowledged its abusive account freezes. The company claims to have reduced these blocks by 82%. Binance, meanwhile, launched a $400 million compensation fund. Its stated goal is clear: “rebuild trust” after October outages. 

Shocking figures from the Bithumb incident

• Total value mistakenly distributed: 44 billion dollars;
• Number of affected user accounts: 695;
• Response time to block accounts: 35 minutes;
• Asset recovery rate: 99.7%;
• Current bitcoin price: $68,894.

Bitcoin’s outlook darkens structurally. CryptoQuant analysts observe very worrying technical signals. The leading digital asset is sinking deeply into a sustained bearish trend. This convergence of bad technical and fundamental news paints a particularly challenging horizon.