Bithumb Client Ordered to Return Nearly $140,000 After Mistaken Crypto Credit

The Seoul Central District Court has ordered a client of South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb to return $140,400 that was mistakenly credited to their account in February. The error occurred during an airdrop of KRW coins when an exchange employee entered bitcoins instead of South Korean won, resulting in internal records showing a credit of 620,000 BTC to hundreds of accounts.

Bithumb's wallets held about 40,000 BTC at the time, and trading continued for about 40 minutes during which 1,788 BTC were recorded in the order book. The platform was able to recover 99.7% of the mistakenly sent coins on the same day but turned to legal action to recover the remaining amount.

The court deemed the funds received by the client after selling the mistaken credits as unjust enrichment and ordered their return to Bithumb. This is already the second case won by Bithumb in a short period, with another client ordered to return $3,620 on the same day.