Bithumb secured its second first-instance judgment on Thursday, ordering a customer to return proceeds from bitcoin mistakenly credited in February.
The decision came one day after another ruling favored the exchange in a separate recovery claim. Two of its four lawsuits remain pending as smaller domestic competitors Coinone and Korbit introduce trading fee waivers.
Bithumb Court Decisions Advance Recovery Claims
Judge Kim Yu-seong of Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 90 upheld an unjust enrichment claim against a customer identified only as A. The single-judge case involved 194,000,443 won, the second-largest claim among the four lawsuits.
On August 26, the same court awarded Bithumb 4,989,990 won in another case. Both proceedings used public notice service, which deems documents served through posting when defendants’ addresses or workplaces cannot be located.
Claims involving 500 million won and 14.8 million won remain undecided. Bithumb sued four customers in March after they sold mistakenly credited bitcoin and retained the proceeds.
The February error occurred when an employee selected bitcoin instead of won while processing event rewards. Users received 620,000 BTC units, reportedly worth approximately $43 billion, exceeding the exchange’s actual bitcoin holdings, according to Cryptopolitan.
Financial authorities said Bithumb froze trading and withdrawals after discovering the mistake, recovering 618,214 units. However, 1,786 BTC had already been sold. On March 10, Bithumb told the National Assembly it had recovered 99% of 1,788 units outstanding at that stage.
Bitcoin Payout Error Prompts Regulatory Proposals
Following the incident, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed continuous reconciliation systems comparing customer ledgers with exchange holdings every five minutes. Proposed safeguards also included automated verification and multiple approvals for manual transactions, including event rewards.
Separately, Cryptopolitan reported that identity-verification failures had resulted in a 36.8 billion won fine, approximately $25 million. Bithumb also received a six-month partial suspension, which it paused on May 1, allowing operations until a final ruling.
Bithumb Faces Competition From Fee Waivers
Coinone eliminated fees for trading every cryptocurrency listed on its platform and offered a renewable 30-day zero-fee voucher. Digital X, Korbit’s operator, waived won-market fees for one year through August 24, 2027.
Mirae Asset Consulting recently acquired more than 97% of Korbit, taking control of the exchange. Korea Investment & Securities, meanwhile, holds a 20% ownership stake in rival exchange Coinone.
This month, Coinone accounted for 2.39% of won-denominated trading volume, while Korbit held 0.52%. Upbit led with 68.11%, followed by Bithumb at 28.95%.
Bithumb recorded more than 2 trillion won in trading volume over 24 hours last Saturday. Bitcoin briefly traded above $80,000 during that period. The increase followed an 83.4% decline in the exchange’s operating profit during the first half of the year.
