Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has officially initiated legal proceedings in an attempt to recover 7 bitcoins that were mistakenly sent out during a promotional campaign in February. The institution applied to the court for temporary asset freezes, targeting specific users who refused to return the missent funds before the civil lawsuit was filed. This move marks a shift from dealing with the technical error to formal legal action.

The incident originated on February 6 when a system entry error occurred. The exchange intended to distribute a total of 620,000 South Korean won in rewards to 249 winners, but instead sent 620,000 bitcoins, resulting in a sudden change in value amounting to approximately 62 trillion South Korean won. Although the operation team quickly reversed the relevant transaction orders within minutes, some of the funds were still transferred by the recipients.

According to Monitored by Woofun AI, Bithumb managed to recover 99.7% of the missent funds on the same day. The remaining 0.3%, or 1,788 bitcoins, were sold, but the company used its own reserves to cover the loss and avoid a liquidity crisis. Subsequent investigations revealed that although most of the funds from these sales were recovered, some recipients still refused to return them, claiming that the error was the exchange's responsibility.

This stance poses significant legal challenges, as according to current South Korean law, such improperly obtained funds are considered illegal gains, and recipients have a legal obligation to return them. Regulators also responded to this risk exposure. The South Korean Financial Services Commission recently required all cryptocurrency exchanges to perform internal account reconciliations every five minutes to prevent similar discrepancies from going unnoticed.

The inspection results showed that three of the country's five major exchanges still conducted such reconciliations only once a day, and this infrequent frequency significantly weakened their ability to respond to sudden operational risks.