South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced Monday that customer losses from its recent Bitcoin mispayment incident are estimated at around 1 billion won ($700,000), pledging full compensation for all affected users.
CEO Lee Jae-won stated in an official notice that the company identified cases where customers sold Bitcoin at unfavorable prices during the incident. "We have confirmed cases of panic selling where transactions were executed under disadvantageous conditions due to the sharp drop in Bitcoin prices," Lee said. "We will take full responsibility and provide complete compensation along with additional payments to affected customers."
Bithumb plans to reimburse 100% of selling price differences plus an additional 10% to customers who incurred losses from panic selling. The compensation targets users who sold Bitcoin at low prices between 7:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. on Sunday when the incident occurred. Payments will be automatically processed within one week after data verification.
The exchange will also pay 20,000 won ($14) to all customers who were logged into the platform during the incident timeframe. Additional measures include waiving trading fees for all assets for one week and establishing a 100 billion won ($70 million) customer protection fund for immediate asset relief in future incidents.
Bithumb also announced plans to upgrade its asset verification system, strengthen multi-signature authorization protocols, enhance AI-based abnormal transaction detection and blocking systems, and conduct external audits by specialized agencies.
The incident occurred when Bithumb attempted to distribute 2,000 won worth of Bitcoin per user through a promotional "random box" event but mistakenly issued 2,000 Bitcoins per person—totaling 620,000 Bitcoins worth approximately 64 trillion won ($45 billion). The company said it has recovered 99.7% of the mispaid amount and will cover unrecovered portions with corporate assets.
"I sincerely apologize and deeply acknowledge our responsibility," Lee said. "We will take full responsibility to ensure no customer losses occur."