In a significant operational blunder, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb mistakenly transferred over $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to its users during a promotional event. The error occurred when Bithumb intended to distribute small cash rewards of 2,000 Korean won (approximately $1.37) to each user, but instead, users received at least 2,000 bitcoins each due to an input mistake, as reported by sources like Dawn and Business Recorder. This massive error affected 695 users and led to a sharp sell-off on the platform. Bithumb quickly responded by blocking trading and withdrawals within 35 minutes and managed to recover 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins distributed, as noted by The News Pakistan and Tribune Latest. The exchange has assured that the incident was not due to hacking or security breaches, emphasizing, 'there are no problems with system security or customer asset management.'