Bithumb has won two lawsuits seeking recovery from users who sold Bitcoin that was mistakenly credited to their accounts, with the exchange so far recovering 99.7% of the 620,000 BTC erroneously distributed during a February promotion. Regulatory scrutiny continues as Bithumb strengthens its controls ahead of a planned 2028 IPO.

The South Korean exchange has secured two court victories over customers who sold Bitcoin mistakenly credited during a promotional campaign in February 2026. The Seoul Central District Court ruled in Bithumb's favor in two separate unjust enrichment cases, strengthening its recovery efforts. Unjust enrichment is a established civil claim under South Korean law that allows a party to recover benefits conferred by mistake, and the rulings confirm that mistakenly credited crypto assets can be clawed back through the courts rather than left to exchange discretion. The rulings involve customers who sold the erroneously credited Bitcoin before the exchange restricted affected accounts and recovered most of the assets.

Bithumb Secures Two Court Victories

The latest ruling concerned approximately 194 million Korean won, equivalent to about $140,513 based on reported figures. The court ordered the defendant to return the proceeds generated from selling Bitcoin that Bithumb had mistakenly credited to their account.

Bithumb filed four civil lawsuits in March against users who retained proceeds after selling the incorrectly credited Bitcoin. The exchange previously won another case involving approximately five million won, marking its second successful lawsuit overall. Two remaining claims involve approximately 14.8 million won and 500 million won, respectively, according to a report. The legal victories could strengthen Bithumb's position as it seeks recovery from users affected by the accounting error. However, the remaining proceedings will determine whether similar reasoning applies to the other outstanding claims.

620,000 BTC Error Triggers Regulatory Scrutiny

The dispute began on February 6, when Bithumb distributed promotional rewards to hundreds of customers participating in an event. An employee reportedly entered Bitcoin as the reward unit instead of Korean won, creating an extraordinary internal crediting error. Bithumb intended to distribute 620,000 won but mistakenly credited approximately 620,000 BTC across affected customer accounts — roughly 3% of Bitcoin's total 21 million coin supply. At that time the amount of Bitcoin involved was worth roughly $43 billion, making the incident one of crypto's most significant operational errors.

Bithumb said in a notice that it detected the problem quickly and blocked trading and withdrawals for 695 customers within approximately 35 minutes of distribution. The exchange subsequently recovered 618,212 BTC, representing approximately 99.7% of the mistakenly credited amount. However, customers had already sold 1,788 BTC, requiring Bithumb to pursue recovery through additional measures and court proceedings.

The incident briefly pushed Bithumb's BTC-KRW trading pair sharply lower, with prices falling approximately 15% during the disruption. Because Bithumb's won-denominated pair is among the most heavily traded Bitcoin markets in South Korea, a move of that size on a major exchange highlighted how quickly internal operational errors can spill into market prices.

South Korean financial authorities subsequently investigated Bithumb's internal controls, risk management, and procedures surrounding customer asset accounting. The episode comes as South Korea continues to tighten oversight of its crypto sector, including the enforcement of the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users since mid-2024, which imposes safeguards on customer asset custody and operational requirements on exchange operators. Bithumb also said it would redesign its payment processes and strengthen internal controls to prevent similar mistakes. The exchange is targeting an initial public offering in 2028 — a listing it has pursued for several years with successive delays — and the incident, its litigation record, and the resulting regulatory review are factors in the heightened scrutiny of its governance and operational safeguards ahead of that goal.