In response to a substantial overpayment incident involving Bithumb, a leading virtual asset exchange in South Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) took swift action by sending an inspection team to the site. On the morning of the incident, FSS chairman I Chanjin convened an emergency response meeting, emphasizing the need to ascertain the details of the mispayment, the protective measures Bithumb has for its users, and the possibility of recovering the erroneously distributed Bitcoin. Depending on the severity of the incident, the investigation could escalate into a full-fledged examination.

The incident unfolded when Bithumb mistakenly distributed a staggering 620,000 Bitcoins instead of a planned cash payment of about 620,000 won (approximately $450) to 249 out of 695 participants in a promotional event. This serious oversight, attributed to an input error where the unit of payment was altered from 'won' to 'Bitcoin', led to each winning participant effectively receiving around 2,490 Bitcoins, valuing the total mispayment at around 2.4 trillion won at the time. Bithumb promptly acted to halt trading and withdrawals for the affected customers just 35 minutes after the overpayment occurred, recovering over 99% of the erroneously sent Bitcoins.

Moreover, Bithumb reported that they had managed to retrieve 93% of the trading amount concerning the 1,788 Bitcoins sold by some winners in the market. This rapid response illustrates Bithumb's intention to mitigate the financial fallout of the incident, while the FSS's ongoing scrutiny indicates a rigorous approach to enforcing regulatory compliance in the virtual asset sector in South Korea.