According to reports from Digital Asset, Bithumb secured its first court victory in a Bitcoin recovery lawsuit, winning a ₹194 crore judgment on August 27. Judge Kim Yu-seong of the Seoul Central District Court's 90th Civil Division ruled in favor of the exchange, ordering the defendant to return approximately 194 million won as unjust enrichment. The decision represents the first ruling among four separately filed civil recovery lawsuits, with no appeal or deadline for the remaining three rulings having been publicly reported when the judgment was announced.
As reported by Digital Asset, Bithumb intended to distribute 620,000 won in total rewards during a random-box event on February 6, but an employee selected Bitcoin as the payment unit instead. The exchange's internal system credited 620,000 BTC instead of the intended amount, with the full amount not transferred across the Bitcoin blockchain. The credits existed primarily within Bithumb's internal ledger and exceeded the exchange's actual Bitcoin holdings. Bithumb identified the mistake after 20 minutes and began blocking trading and withdrawals 15 minutes later, completing restrictions covering 695 customers within 35 minutes.
According to Digital Asset, Bithumb initially recovered more than 99% of the mistaken credits through account reversals and voluntary returns, later reporting that 99% of the 1,788 BTC sold or left unrecovered during the initial response had been recovered by March 10. The exchange filed separate civil claims against four users in March, alleging that customers sold Bitcoin credited to them by mistake and retained the resulting cash after being asked to return it. The remaining claims total approximately ₹500 crore, ₹14.8 crore, and ₹5 crore respectively, with the combined reported claims totaling approximately ₹713.8 crore.
As reported by Digital Asset, some recipients sold mistakenly credited Bitcoin before controls took effect, with the selling briefly pushing Bithumb's BTC/KRW price about 17% lower than the wider market. South Korea's Financial Services Commission found broader weaknesses in exchange ledger reconciliation, approval systems and operational-risk controls following the incident. In April, the regulator ordered exchanges to introduce automated balance reconciliation at five-minute intervals and required separate accounts, automatic validity checks, third-party verification and multiple approvals for high-risk manual payments. The Financial Supervisory Service reportedly sent Bithumb an inspection opinion in early August, with a final penalty yet to be announced.
