Han Jin Supervisory Institute: Users who sold mistakenly issued airdrop tokens are legally obligated to return the assets

According to a report by Reuters, Lee Chan-jin, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea, stated that the recent incident where Bithumb accidentally issued over $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to customers reveals structural vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency sector, highlighting the urgent need for enhanced regulation. Lee emphasized that users who sold the mistakenly issued tokens are legally obligated to return the assets.

In addition, regarding "ghost tokens" (over-issued assets) and the launch of Bitcoin spot ETF products, the FSS expressed a cautious attitude and plans to further expand the regulatory scope through secondary legislation of the "Digital Asset Basic Act."

Last Friday, Bithumb mistakenly issued 620,000 Bitcoins during a promotional reward distribution, triggering a sell-off on the platform. Currently, preliminary investigations by financial authorities show that 99.7% of the mistakenly issued Bitcoins have been recovered; of the 1,786 Bitcoins sold before the trading was suspended, 93% have also been recovered.