Bithumb Secures First Court Victory in Crypto Payout Error Case

Bithumb, a major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, has secured its first courtroom victory in a campaign to recover funds from customers who sold Bitcoin credited to their accounts by mistake during a February promotional event.

The Seoul Central District Court's 90th Civil Division ruled on Thursday that a user identified only as A must return approximately 194 million won (about $140,000) in unjust enrichment. This marked the first ruling among four separate civil lawsuits Bithumb filed in March against users who sold the mistakenly credited Bitcoin and kept the cash.

The exchange initially credited 620,000 BTC to 695 user accounts instead of the intended 620,000 won due to a processing error on February 6. However, some users had already sold 1,788 BTC before Bithumb froze the affected accounts within 40 minutes and recovered 99.7% of the total.

The court's decision supports Bithumb's argument that customers cannot retain proceeds generated from an obvious payment error, according to legal observers. However, each remaining case must still be decided on its own evidence and defenses.