SEOUL — Feb 7, 2026 (GeokHub) - A major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said it mistakenly distributed more than $40 billion worth of bitcoin to customers during a promotional event, triggering market disruption and prompting regulatory scrutiny.
The exchange acknowledged on Saturday that a system error led to the unintended distribution of roughly 620,000 bitcoins to hundreds of users instead of small cash rewards. The incident occurred on Friday and was quickly followed by a sharp selloff on the platform, briefly sending bitcoin prices plunging.
According to the company, nearly all of the distributed assets were recovered within hours after trading and withdrawals were restricted for affected accounts. The exchange said access was limited for fewer than 700 users within 35 minutes of detecting the error, allowing it to reclaim approximately 99.7% of the mistakenly issued bitcoin.
The error stemmed from a promotional campaign intended to award modest cash incentives worth about 2,000 won, or roughly $1.40, to participating users. Instead, recipients reportedly received thousands of bitcoins each due to a configuration mistake in the reward system.
The exchange issued a public apology, stressing that the incident was not the result of hacking or a security breach. It said customer assets remained protected and that internal systems had not been compromised.
Despite those assurances, financial regulators raised concerns about the broader risks exposed by the episode. South Korea’s financial authorities said the incident highlighted structural vulnerabilities in the virtual asset sector and announced plans to review internal control systems across major crypto exchanges. On-site inspections could follow if irregularities are uncovered during the review process.
Market data showed bitcoin prices on the exchange briefly fell by about 17% during the incident before recovering later in the session. Prices stabilized after corrective measures were implemented.
The exchange remains one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, though it operates behind the market leader in South Korea’s highly competitive digital asset industry.
