[News Today] “Bithumb mishap unnoticed for 20 min”

[LEAD]
We take a closer look at the mistaken Bitcoin payout at cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. Bitcoin worth tens of times more than the exchange's actual holdings, so called ghost coins, were traded.
Yet Bithumb failed to detect the error for more than 20 minutes. Financial authorities are moving to directly check whether trading volumes match actual coin holdings.

[REPORT]
At around 7 p.m. on Feb. 6, Bithumb mistakenly paid Bitcoin worth 60 trillion won (USD 41 billion) instead of 620,000 won (USD 425).

It took 20 minutes to detect the mishap, and another 20 minutes were wasted before withdrawals were actually restricted.

While Bithumb was dragging its feet, the mistakenly distributed Bitcoin flooded the market, resulting in a price plunge.

This is the reason a system that can monitor gaps between coin balance and transaction volumes in real time is essential.

Banks already have a similar system in place.

After their business hours, they check if their transaction records match the amount of cash in their vaults.

Cash is monitored in real time by the Bank of Korea, while securities are checked by the Korea Securities Depository.

Cryptocurrency exchanges also have their own balance verification systems in place.

But different companies have different operating methods and standards.

Bithumb's rival Upbit says it checks transaction volumes and coin balance every five minutes, but Bithumb has refused to disclose its own details.

The financial authorities have decided to step in to build a verification system.

Various verification systems currently operated by exchanges will be integrated into one.

If a trading volume exceeds coin balance by a certain amount, an alarm will go off to minimize response time.

The financial authorities will monitor the system on an ongoing basis.

Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin says those who sold the erroneously paid coins and converted them into cash are in a catastrophic situation, and warned there will be the issue of accountability to the very end.

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