Image Credit: bithumpcorp.com
Bithumb has won two first-instance lawsuits against customers who sold Bitcoin mistakenly credited during the exchange’s February payout error and did not return the proceeds.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled for Bithumb on August 26 and 27 in two of four unjust enrichment cases. The judgments cover claims of about 5 million won and 194 million won.
Court Orders Customer to Return 194M Won
Thursday’s ruling concerned the second-largest of Bithumb’s four recovery claims. The court ordered the customer to return roughly 194 million won generated from selling Bitcoin received through the erroneous payout.
A separate ruling on Wednesday awarded Bithumb about 5 million won in another case. Both lawsuits proceeded through service by public notice because court documents could not be delivered to the defendants through ordinary methods.
Two cases remain unresolved. Bithumb is seeking about 14.8 million won in one and roughly 500 million won in the largest claim.
Employee Error Credited 620,000 BTC to 249 Accounts
The dispute dates to February 6, when Bithumb ran a promotional event intended to distribute cash rewards. An employee selected BTC instead of Korean won as the payment unit, causing 620,000 BTC to be credited to 249 customer accounts on Bithumb’s internal ledger.
The amount was worth more than $40 billion at the time. Bithumb froze withdrawals after discovering the error and recovered about 99.7% of the incorrectly credited Bitcoin before it could leave affected accounts.
Some customers had already sold part of their credited balances, contributing to a temporary drop of about 15% in Bithumb’s BTC-won market.
Bithumb Still Seeks 514.8M Won in 2 Unresolved Cases
South Korean financial regulators launched an inspection after the incident, examining Bithumb’s ledger reconciliation and emergency controls. Major domestic exchanges later agreed to introduce more frequent balance checks and automated transaction controls.
Bithumb filed four civil cases in March against customers who had not returned proceeds from the mistaken Bitcoin sales. After the two rulings this week, the exchange is still seeking about 514.8 million won across the two unresolved cases.
