A bizarre error that mistakenly credited Bithumb customers with roughly 620,000 BTC is now producing victories for the South Korean exchange in court.
The Seoul Central District Court has ordered one customer to return about $140,400 (194 million won) after they sold BTC mistakenly credited to their account. The court ruled Thursday that the proceeds constituted unjust enrichment.
Specifically, the ruling concerns the cash from those sales, not any Bitcoin the customer may still hold. The exchange filed the claim in March to recover the money linked to the February error.
How the Bitcoin Credit Error Happened
The case is Bithumb’s second court victory in two days after the same court awarded it $3,620 (5 million won) on Wednesday. Two other claims remain pending, involving $10,700 (14.8 million won) and $362,000 (500 million won).
Together, the four claims total about $517,000 (714 million won), with some filings served by public notice. Thursday’s ruling resolves only one part of a broader recovery effort stemming from the February 6 error.
That error occurred during a random-box promotion for small cash prizes. A staff member entered Bitcoin instead of Korean won, causing internal records to show roughly 620,000 BTC across hundreds of accounts.
Notably, the figure was far above Bithumb’s actual holdings of about 40,000 BTC. Trading continued for roughly 40 minutes, with about 1,788 BTC reaching the order book before the exchange halted activity.
Recovery and Regulatory Fallout
The miscredit sent the BTC/KRW pair down about 17%. The exchange reversed most of the false credits that day and said by March 10 that it had recovered 99.7% of the Bitcoin involved in the broader miscredit. It later sought to freeze a few outstanding coins, while some affected traders received 110% compensation.
The incident also drew scrutiny from South Korean regulators, who treated it as a control failure and began an emergency review the next day. Financial regulators examined the case, while lawmakers opened an urgent inquiry.
That review led to wider concerns about how exchanges handle mistaken balances. The Financial Supervisory Service said the balances could qualify as unjust enrichment, supporting Bithumb’s recovery efforts. Authorities later required licensed exchanges to reconcile customer ledgers with actual holdings every five minutes, while the Bank of Korea considered a market circuit breaker.
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