The Bank of Korea said in a report on Monday that the domestic cryptocurrency market needs circuit breakers similar to those used in stock markets, citing the February fat-thumb incident.
On February 6, Bithumb accidentally transferred 620,000 BTC (worth $43 billion at the time) to hundreds of users’ wallets as part of a promotional campaign giveaway. The error was allegedly caused by a staff member putting the prize unit as BTC instead of KRW (Korean Won).
The incident caused the Bitcoin-KRW trading pair on the platform to fall by around 15%, resulting in losses for the user.
Latest Central Bank Payments and Settlements Report He attributed the incident to the lack of internal control and regulation in the digital asset market compared to traditional financial institutions.
The BOK also pointed out that Bithumb took 20 minutes to detect the error, and failed to prevent bitcoins from being transferred or sold, adding to users’ losses.
“To prevent this from happening to other exchanges, the relevant regulations need to be strengthened,” the BOK wrote.
The BOK said exchanges need to adopt systems to detect and immediately eliminate such human errors, and market-wide security measures, such as a circuit breaker that will block unusually large orders or temporarily halt trading when crypto prices experience large fluctuations.
The central bank called on lawmakers to consider adopting such measures in the upcoming Digital Asset Core Act, which is expected to establish a comprehensive set of rules for the local industry.
Meanwhile, Bithumb recently requested a court to freeze the 7 BTC it was unable to recover. After the incident, Bethumb faced significant scrutiny and investigation by local authorities, and has pushed back its IPO plans to 2028.
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