Market News

(Bloomberg) - South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, which mistakenly distributed more than $40 billion worth of Bitcoin on Friday, said it will reimburse customers who made losses when they sold their holdings in a panic during a brief but sharp selloff on its platform.

Bithumb had intended to award 620,000 won ($424) to winners of a promotion, but an employee keyed in Bitcoin instead of the Korean currency, Yonhap News reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The error led to the distribution of 620,000 Bitcoin to 695 users at 7 p.m. local time Friday, a mistake that was identified within 20 minutes, the exchange said.

“An abnormal amount of Bitcoin was mistakenly distributed to some users,” the exchange said in a statement. “As some of the accounts proceeded to sell the credited Bitcoin, the Bitcoin price experienced a brief yet sharp fluctuation.”