Bithumb CEO Lee Jaewon Says He Sincerely Apologizes to the Public for Erroneous Bitcoin Payout Incident

Lee Jaewon, CEO of Bithumb, said on the 11th, "I sincerely apologize to the people who must have been greatly distressed by the news of our company's erroneous event payouts."

Lee Jaewon, CEO of Bithumb, is answering questions at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on the 11th. National Assembly Broadcasting

At an emergency inquiry session on Bithumb-related issues held by the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on the same day, CEO Lee said, "As the person with final responsibility for this incident, I once again deeply bow my head in sincere apology."

CEO Lee explained, "We check information on the total amount of digital assets we hold in real time," but added, "We acknowledge that the system to verify whether the amount to be paid out this time exceeded our holdings was not applied."

Previously, on the afternoon of the 8th, Bithumb attempted to pay prize money ranging from 2,000 won to 50,000 won per person to winners of an event, but mistakenly entered the unit as "bitcoin" instead of "won," resulting in 620,000 bitcoin being paid out in error. It has been assessed as an unprecedented incident in which virtual assets worth more than 60 trillion won at book value were erroneously paid out in the computer system.

Bithumb blocked trading and withdrawals 35 minutes after the incident occurred and recovered 99.7% of the erroneously paid bitcoin. Of the 1,788 bitcoin that were sold, it secured an additional approximately 93%, but about 125 bitcoin are believed to remain unrecovered. Around 13 billion won worth remains unrecovered, and customer losses from low-price sales and market distortion are estimated at around 1 billion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.