**Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange Accidentally Gives Away $60 Billion in Bitcoin**

In a shocking turn of events, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has admitted to accidentally transferring over 620,000 bitcoins to its users, worth a staggering $60 billion.

The exchange, which has been at the center of controversy in recent months due to its handling of user funds, said it meant to send a promotional gift of 2,000 won ($1.95) to each customer but instead sent approximately 2,000 bitcoins per user.

According to reports, Bithumb was supposed to distribute the small amount as part of a promotion, but its system malfunctioned, causing the massive transfer of funds. The exchange quickly realized the error and blocked trading and withdrawals for the affected users within 35 minutes of the incident occurring on Friday.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion that occurred during the distribution process of this promotional event," Bithumb said in a statement, acknowledging the massive mistake.

The exchange claimed that it had managed to recover an impressive 99.7% of the mistakenly sent bitcoins and would use its own assets to fully cover the remaining amount lost in the incident. However, the error did cause temporary volatility in bitcoin prices on the platform, with some users selling their tokens at unfavourable prices due to a brief price drop.

Charts from Bithumb showed that bitcoin's price briefly plummeted 17% to 81.1 million won late on Friday, sparking panic among investors. In a subsequent statement released later on Saturday, the exchange admitted that some trades were executed at unfavourable prices for users due to "panic selling" during the incident.

Bithumb also revealed that it would compensate affected customers by covering the full price difference as well as offering a 10% bonus. The platform estimated losses at around 1 billion won ($976,579).

The exchange stressed that the incident was "unrelated to external hacking or security breaches," and acknowledged that its system's failure led to the massive mistake.

In related news, bitcoin prices saw a sharp decline this week due to various market factors. The world's largest cryptocurrency had previously surged following US President Donald Trump's election victory in November 2024, but lost steam in recent days.