South Korean lawmakers intensify scrutiny after Bithumb’s $43B Bitcoin credit error

South Korean lawmakers are increasing oversight of financial regulators after a system error at crypto exchange Bithumb mistakenly credited users with about $43 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this month.

The glitch credited 695 users with up to 2,000 BTC each instead of a 2,000 won promotional reward. Although the exchange fixed the issue within minutes and recovered roughly 99.7% of the funds, about 0.3% remained missing and had to be covered with company assets. The incident triggered a flash crash in Bitcoin’s price on the platform and caused losses exceeding $100 million.

Lawmakers criticized both the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service for failing to detect structural system risks despite multiple prior inspections. A formal investigation is ongoing, with regulators warning that the event exposed major supervisory and regulatory blind spots in the crypto market.