South Korean financial authorities reported on Monday that 86 customers of Bithumb, a major South Korean crypto exchange, have sold either a portion or all of the Bitcoin mistakenly distributed to them last week.
The exchange accidentally gifted its users over US$40 billion worth of Bitcoin during a promotional event on Friday, briefly turning some into multi-millionaires.
Bithumb intended to distribute small cash rewards totaling 620,000 won (US$423.6) to 249 customers. However, it mistakenly sent 620,000 Bitcoins instead, prompting a significant sell-off on the exchange.
The cryptocurrency exchange immediately stopped transactions and began recovering the incorrectly sent Bitcoin around 7:40 p.m. on Friday.
Bithumb has stated that it has recovered the majority of the Bitcoin sold by users, but approximately 125 Bitcoin, valued at around 13 billion won (approximately $10 million USD), remains unrecovered.
Authorities indicate that around 3 billion won (approximately $2.3 million USD) has already been withdrawn and transferred to customer bank accounts. The remaining 10 billion won (approximately $7.7 million USD) has been used to purchase other virtual assets.
