South Korea’s leading crypto exchange Bithumb has launched a temporary joint venture to recover seven Bitcoins that were nearly stolen earlier this year, Chosun Biz. report Thursday.
The incident happened on February 6 when Bithumb accidentally distributed 620,000 BTCwhich was more than $40 billion at the time, for 695 users instead of the 620,000 they wanted to benefit from 249 users due to input errors during payment.
The error was detected within 20 minutes, and the output was stopped. Bithumb has also taken a lot of money through direct debit, but some users have refused to return the goods.
The remaining seven Bitcoins were worth about 700 million won when this happened. Now, at today’s prices, the stash is worth more than $500,000, or about 740 million won.
Legal experts say that those who received the money should repay the money under the principle of unjust enrichment. Users who sold Bitcoin may face higher costs to retrieve those assets if prices have risen since the error.
Payment plan
Following the incident, Bithumb said it would refund customers in full after misallocating 620,000 Bitcoin.
Chief Executive Officer Lee Jae-won said affected users will receive 110% compensation. In addition, all customers who reached the platform during this period will be given 20,000 winnings, while the trading costs were removed for seven days.
The exchange also said it is working with government officials to implement system upgrades, including financial verification, multi-tier payment acceptance and AI-based monitoring. It is also planning to set up a 100 billion won customer protection fund.
