A critical operational error at South Korean exchange Bithumb sent Bitcoin tumbling to 81.1 million won (approx. $55,000) on the platform today, creating a massive liquidity dislocation while global markets hovered near $62,500.
The $133 Million Typo
The catalyst was a textbook "fat finger" incident. According to CoinDesk and local reports, an employee managing a promotional event intended to distribute 2,000 Korean won (roughly $1.50) to eligible users. Instead, they inputted the reward unit as "BTC."
The result was the instant distribution of approximately 2,000 BTC, valued at $133 million, to hundreds of unsuspecting accounts. Unlike on-chain transactions, these were internal ledger credits, creating "phantom" Bitcoin that users immediately rushed to dump into the KRW order book.
Arbitrage and Aftermath
The sudden supply shock overwhelmed Bithumb's liquidity. Bitcoin's price on the exchange collapsed 15.8% within minutes, hitting a low of ~$55,000 while the global average remained steady above $62,000. This created a severe arbitrage window, though likely inaccessible to external traders due to South Korea's "Kimchi Premium" capital controls and the speed of the crash.
"The Bitcoin price temporarily fluctuated sharply as some accounts that received the Bitcoin sold it… the market price returned to normal levels within 5 minutes.", Bithumb Statement
Bithumb froze withdrawals and restricted the affected accounts shortly after the anomaly was flagged by internal monitoring systems. While the exchange claims prices stabilized quickly, the incident forces a difficult conversation about the fragility of internal exchange ledgers where a UI toggle can print $133 million out of thin air.
The exchange has not yet confirmed if trades executed during the crash will be rolled back, leaving opportunistic buyers who caught the $55k wick in limbo.
