PANews reported on February 8th that Bithumb released an update on its handling of the mistaken Bitcoin distribution incident. The company has completed the process, recovering 99.7% of the mistakenly distributed Bitcoins on the same day. The remaining 0.3% (approximately 1,788 Bitcoins) had already been sold and were fully replenished using the exchange's own assets. As of 22:42:52 on February 7th, 2026, Bithumb's Bitcoin asset consistency has been restored to 100%.
The main developments in this incident are as follows:
- 2026-02-06 19:00: Overpayment of event rewards occurred.
- 2026-02-06 19:35: Start freezing transactions and withdrawals of accounts that have exceeded payment limits.
- 2026-02-06 19:40: Completed freezing of transactions and withdrawals in accounts with excessive payment limits, and began recovery efforts.
- 2026-02-07 00:23: First Announcement (Incident Situation and Progress of Preliminary Measures)
- 2026-02-07 04:30: Second Announcement (Cause of the Incident and Progress of Asset Recovery for Overpayment)
- 2026-02-07 13:00: On-site inspection by the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau begins.
- 2026-02-07 17:33: Third Notice (announcing a plan to prevent recurrence and provide customer protection and compensation)
- 2026-02-07 22:42: All 1,788 bitcoins sold have been settled using company assets.
In addition, according to the previously announced compensation plan, the compensation will be distributed in sequence starting today.
- 1) For all customers who were logged into the Bithumb application or website at the time of the incident: 20,000 Korean won will be paid.
- 2) Compensate users who sold Bitcoin at a low price during the event with 100% of the actual selling price difference plus an additional 10% consolation money.
- 3) All trading instruments will be exempt from transaction fees for 7 days (effective from 00:00 on February 9, 2026).
