The phantom Bitcoin: the mistake of a Korean company that has shaken the crypto market
An error in a promotional raffle has put a cryptocurrency exchange platform in South Korea in jeopardy, after accidentally delivering the equivalent of more than 40 billion dollars in Bitcoin to its users.
The incident occurred after an employee confused the South Korean won with the Bitcoin unit when entering the prize amount. Instead of assigning 620,000 won, the amount was recorded in the field corresponding to the cryptocurrency, leading the system to automatically process the equivalent of about 620,000 bitcoins.
To put it in context, the total supply of Bitcoin is limited to 21 million coins, so the failure managed to mobilize nearly 3% of all existing bitcoins.
The error triggered a wave of massive sales by users who saw million-dollar balances reflected in their accounts. This artificial selling pressure contributed to a nearly 17% drop in the market in a matter of minutes.
The episode has raised alarms among regulators, after it became known that the platform allowed trading with a volume of up to 620,000 bitcoins when it only had around 50,000, indicating the existence of unbacked balances.
The company claims to have recovered 99% of the funds, although nearly 100 bitcoins — about nine million dollars — remain in the hands of users who refuse to return them. To mitigate the reputational impact, it has announced the creation of a customer protection fund of 70 million dollars and the temporary elimination of fees.
The firm now faces possible sanctions and a serious credibility crisis, after a single employee was able to execute an operation of such magnitude without the appropriate security filters.
The incident reignites the debate about the security of the crypto ecosystem, highlighting that, although blockchain technology may be robust, access platforms remain vulnerable to human error and deficiencies in their internal systems.