Bithumb, one of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has seen a significant drop in market share following a major incident in which users were mistakenly credited with 2,000 bitcoins each instead of the intended 2,000 won. The error, which occurred on February 6, led to an erroneous payout of 620,000 bitcoins and raised concerns about the exchange's internal controls and ledger management.
The incident had a lasting impact on Bithumb's market share, with the exchange falling from around 31.5 percent in January to the mid-20 percent range as of last Friday. In contrast, its competitors have seen gains in trading volume, with Coinone's share rising to around 13 percent and Korbit's volumes increasing by over 12 times.
Bithumb attempted to contain the fallout by introducing a week-long suspension of trading fees on all digital assets, which led to a short-term surge in activity and lifted its share back above 30 percent. However, the gains proved temporary, and the exchange's share quickly retreated once the promotion ended.