The South Korean cryptocurrency platform Bithumb has apologised after mistakenly transferring bitcoins worth approximately €37 billion to users.
The error, which occurred on Friday, involved the transfer of 620,000 bitcoin units to 695 customers. Transactions were blocked within 35 minutes of the mishap, according to the company.
At the current value of around €59,300 per bitcoin, the mistakenly transferred amount was worth approximately €36.8 billion. Bitcoin prices have recently fallen due to regulatory uncertainty and concerns over the volatility of risky assets.
Local media reported that the mistake stemmed from a promotional event, during which Bithumb intended to send 2,000 won (€1.15) to each user of its platform. Instead, some lucky recipients were given 2,000 bitcoins.
The incident triggered a brief sell-off on the platform.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused by the confusion during the distribution process of this promotional event,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.
Bithumb claimed that 99.7% of the mistakenly transferred bitcoins had been recovered and stated it would use its own reserves to cover the remaining losses.
The company acknowledged that its error caused “significant volatility” in bitcoin prices on its platform for five minutes. During this time, some users managed to sell the cryptocurrency before actions were taken to stabilise its value.
Charts from Bithumb show that bitcoin lost 17% of its value in a brief dip on Friday evening, dropping to 81.1 million won (approximately €46,860).
The company assured the public that this incident was not related to external hacking or security breaches.
