bithumb

The South Korean exchange Bithumb has initiated asset seizure procedures against relevant users due to its failure to recover a portion of Bitcoin that was mistakenly distributed earlier.The incident occurred during the reward distribution period in February, where a total of 620,000 won was originally planned to be distributed to 249 users, but an operational error led to the distribution being made in "Bitcoin." Although the platform retracted the operation within minutes, some users had already completed transactions or transferred assets, resulting in approximately 1.23 billion won worth of assets that could not be recovered. The platform subsequently contacted users one by one, and most of the funds have been returned, but some users still refuse to return the funds.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea announced on Monday that, in response to the internal control vulnerabilities exposed by the recent Bithumb payment incident, it has required all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to conduct reconciliations of their ledgers and actual assets every five minutes.Emergency inspections revealed that three of the five major exchanges in the country only reconcile once a day, making it difficult to timely identify and address discrepancies; some systems are unable to automatically suspend trading when significant mismatches occur, raising regulatory concerns. According to the new regulations:Exchanges must establish an automated ledger-wallet reconciliation system with a cycle of five minutes.Standards for triggering automatic trading suspension due to significant discrepancies must be set.High-risk processes (such as promotional payments) must undergo enhanced scrutiny, including third-party reviews and multi-level approvals.High-risk accounts must be managed independently, and payments must use automated verification tools.The frequency of external audits will change from quarterly to monthly, with the disclosure scope expanded to include detailed asset balances by wallet and ledger. The FSC stated that it will complete the relevant rule revisions by April 2026. Previously, Bithumb announced that its IPO plan would be postponed until after 2028 to strengthen internal controls and accounting policies by 2027; at the same time, the equity swap between Naver Financial and Dunamu will also be completed by the end of September.

According to the data panel on the ChainCatcher official website, regarding BTC wallet balances, in the past 7 days, among the top 10 exchanges by balance, Bithumb had the largest decrease at 5.03%, while Gate had the largest increase at 2.54%.In terms of reserve assets, in the past 7 days, the top three net outflows were OKX (-$143 million), Deribit (-$79.545 million), and KuCoin (-$27.152 million); in terms of net inflows, Binance had the highest inflow at $327 million, followed by Gate with a net inflow of over $103 million.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea requires local crypto CEXs to establish a system that checks the internal ledger against actual crypto asset holdings every 5 minutes by the end of May, and to disclose asset matching balances daily, with monthly external audits by accounting firms.This move is seen as a tightening of regulations following the incident in February this year where Bithumb mistakenly issued 620,000 BTC to users.

According to Arkham data, at 16:14, 15 million TRX (worth approximately $4.7375 million) was transferred from an anonymous address (starting with TEbvoZaKbT...) to Bithumb.

An executive from Bithumb stated that they will "focus on preparing for an IPO by 2027." CFO Jeong Sang-gyun mentioned at the company's annual shareholders' meeting that Bithumb is "strengthening accounting policies and internal controls" after signing an IPO consulting contract with Samjong KPMG. Previously, Bithumb had planned to go public in 2025.At the shareholders' meeting, CEO Lee Jae-won was re-elected for another two years. During his tenure, Bithumb faced a six-month operational suspension and a $24 million fine from South Korean regulators for allegedly violating anti-money laundering regulations.Additionally, another major exchange in South Korea, Upbit's operator Dunamu, also plans to conduct an IPO after completing a stock swap with Naver Financial, expected to take place in September.

According to the official announcement, Bithumb will launch the VVV Korean Won trading pair.

According to the official announcement, Bithumb will launch the KAT Korean Won trading pair.

According to Arkham data, at 17:25, 10.7646 million STG (worth approximately 2.15 million USD) was transferred from Bithumb to an anonymous address (starting with 0xedEb...). Subsequently, that address transferred 11.0591 million STG (worth approximately 2.21 million USD) to a Dead Address.

Bitlayer ($BTR) has plummeted 80% since yesterday afternoon, with the price dropping from $0.2 to $0.04. On-chain data shows that within a day, 41% of the circulating supply (about 140 million coins) of $BTR flowed into the Bithumb exchange, which is suspected to be the main dumping ground or price manipulation site for this spot trading.

According to Arkham data, at 15:30, 36,700 SOL (worth approximately 3.34 million USD) were transferred from Bithumb to Binance.

According to the data panel on the ChainCatcher official website, in terms of BTC wallet balances over the past 7 days, OKX had the largest decrease at 8.49%, while Bithumb had the largest increase at 2.54%.In terms of reserve assets, the top three net outflows over the past 7 days were OKX (-$626 million), HTX (-$297 million), and Binance (-$98.97 million); Bitfinex had the highest net inflow, reaching $200 million.

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, is still pushing for the re-election of its current CEO, Lee Jae-won, despite facing a series of controversies and regulatory penalties. Previously, on February 6, 2026, Bithumb experienced a serious operational error during a promotional event, resulting in the erroneous distribution of approximately 620,000 BTC, about 15 times the actual amount held by the exchange, to users. This exposed significant flaws in Bithumb's internal verification, asset management, and ledger systems. The error was discovered and controlled within 35 minutes, with the exchange freezing transactions and withdrawals for 695 affected accounts, claiming to have recovered 99.7% of the erroneously issued assets, but the incident still triggered a brief panic in the market.The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the South Korean Financial Services Commission imposed several penalties on Bithumb, including a six-month suspension of some operations, a 36.8 billion won (approximately 24 million USD) fine for anti-money laundering violations, a warning to CEO Lee Jae-won, and a six-month suspension for the reporting officer.CEO Lee Jae-won's term will end this month, and the company plans to hold a regular shareholders' meeting on March 31 to discuss a proposal to extend his term for another two years. Despite the significant failures and regulatory pressure, Bithumb has chosen to push for re-election to maintain operational continuity and stability rather than undergo a management reshuffle. In similar situations in the past, such as when Upbit's CEO transitioned to an advisory role after receiving a warning from the FIU, management often faced greater accountability.

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb and Upbit have issued trading warnings related to the stablecoin USR, reminding investors that USR has encountered security issues and significant price fluctuations, and to exercise extra caution when investing in REOLV.

According to the official announcement, Bithumb will launch the Phala Network (PHA) KRW trading pair.

According to the official announcement, Bithumb will launch the Fabric Protocol (ROBO) KRW trading pair.

According to CoinDesk, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea has fined the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb 36.8 billion won (approximately 24.6 million USD) for violating anti-money laundering regulations and has ordered a partial business suspension for six months.According to the Financial Services Commission, this penalty is based on the Act on Reporting and Using Specific Financial Transaction Information, stemming from approximately 6.65 million violations by Bithumb, of which about 3.55 million involved failure to fulfill customer identity verification (KYC) obligations, and about 3.04 million involved failure to effectively intercept transactions that should have been restricted.Regulators also imposed penalties on responsible individuals: the CEO of Bithumb received a warning, and the head of compliance reporting was suspended for six months.The aforementioned violations arose from on-site inspections conducted by South Korean regulatory authorities on the five major exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, between 2024 and 2025.

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has been notified in advance by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that it will face a partial business suspension for 6 months due to violations of anti-money laundering obligations under the Specific Financial Information Act, and a warning of accountability has been issued to the CEO.South Korean financial authorities plan to hold an anti-money laundering sanctions review committee on March 16 to ultimately determine the severity of the penalties. This penalty is expected to exceed the previous penalty imposed on Upbit operator Dunamu, which was fined 35.2 billion won and faced a 3-month partial business suspension for violations. Due to the greater number of violations by Bithumb, the industry generally expects its fine to reach a historic high. Bithumb responded that it is still in the pre-notification stage and will fully present its improvement situation through subsequent formal procedures.