ON 8 February 2026, securityOnline[.]info reports that Bithumb suffered a $130 million deficit after an inadvertent airdrop of 2,000 Bitcoins to 635 users. The piece notes that liabilities arising from platform errors fall to the service provider under South Korean jurisprudence, and that Bithumb will not pursue restitution from users who have already liquidated their windfalls, while Bitcoins remaining in user wallets have been frozen for automatic reclamation.
It describes how some users swiftly converted the assets to fiat via C2C transactions, with profits they are legally permitted to retain, whereas others chose not to sell and reportedly missed out on fortunes. The article also mentions a sudden surge in sell orders that triggered a flash crash, causing Bitcoin’s price on Bithumb to plummet by 20% within minutes before stabilising.
Finally, it states that Bithumb emphasised the malfunction involved no external malfeasance or security breaches, with withdrawals temporarily suspended and services later restored to normal.