South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has won a second court ruling ordering a customer to return proceeds from a mistaken bitcoin payout that occurred in February.
Judge Kim Yu-seong of the Seoul Central District Court's Civil Division 90 ruled in favor of Bithumb in an unjust enrichment claim worth 194,000,443 won against a user identified as A. The decision follows a ruling on August 26 by the same court in a separate suit worth 4,989,990 won. Both cases were handled through public notice service after the defendants' locations could not be found.
The legal actions stem from a February incident where an employee processing a customer event reward mistakenly entered bitcoin instead of won as the payout unit. The error credited users with 620,000 units of BTC. Financial authorities reported that Bithumb froze transactions and withdrawals to recover 618,214 units, though 1,786 BTC had already been sold.
Bithumb subsequently pursued the remaining funds through the courts, filing four separate suits. With two cases now decided, two additional lawsuits involving claims of 500 million won and 14.8 million won remain pending.
Following the payout incident, the Financial Services Commission proposed requirements for exchanges to implement continuous reconciliation systems, automated verification, and multi-approval steps for manual transactions. Meanwhile, Bithumb continues to navigate local market competition as smaller rivals introduce zero-fee trading structures.
