Bithumb seeks court freeze of unreturned Bitcoin after $40B payout error

South Korean exchange Bithumb has filed for provisional seizure proceedings to freeze assets tied to “unreturned Bitcoin” from its February payout error. A “fat-finger” mistake credited 620,000 BTC to 249 users in a promotional “random box” event, though Bithumb later reversed most transfers; about 7 BTC (around 0.3%) reportedly remains unrecovered as unreturned Bitcoin. Legal experts cited in the report say users who kept the mistakenly received BTC could face losses in court, with recipients potentially treated under South Korean unjust enrichment standards. Traders’ direct exposure is limited (targets are ~7 BTC), but the dispute can still raise counterparty/settlement concerns and add short-term volatility in KRW-linked venues. Separately, regulators are tightening scrutiny after the “ghost BTC” mismatch. The FSS and related agencies formed a task force, and Bithumb received a preliminary notice of a six-month partial suspension over alleged AML/KYC issues. The FSC also ordered all domestic exchanges to move from 24-hour reconciliation to a 5-minute asset-matching regime by end of May and to publish daily matching balances. Overall, this is a compliance-and-operations stress test for BTC market plumbing: it’s unlikely to move BTC on size alone, but the unreturned Bitcoin case and potential court outcomes could weigh on sentiment toward exchange reliability.