The Day “Ghost Bitcoin” Flooded South Korea

On February 9, 2026, the global crypto community is still reeling from the details of a catastrophic technical error at Bithumb, South Korea’s leading digital asset platform.

Late last week, a systemic database glitch resulted in the erroneous “transfer” of 620,000 BTC to various user accounts. To put that in perspective, at current prices, the “ghost” Bitcoin was worth approximately $43.4 billion—a figure representing nearly 3% of the total Bitcoin supply.

The anatomy of the blunder

The absurdity of the situation lies in the scale of the mismatch: while the exchange’s internal ledger credited users with over 600,000 coins, Bithumb’s actual on-chain reserves at the time were reported to be just 175 BTC. This was not an on-chain hack, but a massive failure of the internal accounting mechanism.

For a few hours, thousands of retail traders woke up to find themselves “billionaires” on paper. While the exchange quickly halted withdrawals and has reportedly recovered nearly 100% of the erroneous credits, the incident has sparked an intense investigation by South Korean regulators into the exchange’s “proof of reserves” protocols.

Market contagion & sentiment

This glitch couldn’t have come at a worse time. It occurred just as Bitcoin (BTC) slid back below the $70,000 mark, fueled by the “Warsh Shock” (concerns over hawkish U.S. Fed leadership) and institutional outflows. The Bithumb scare added a layer of “existential dread” to the market, with the Fear & Greed Index plummeting to 14 (Extreme Fear). 

As Coinidol.com reported the cryptocurrency has stalled above the $68,000 support level, but remains below the moving average lines. If bears break below the $68,000 support, Bitcoin could continue to fall towards its $53,000 bottom.  

Disclaimer. This analysis and forecast are the personal opinions of the author. The data provided is collected by the author and is not sponsored by any company or token developer. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell cryptocurrency and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Coinidol.com. Readers should do their research before investing in funds.