How Bithumb error created 620,000 ‘ghost bitcoins’ on ledger

Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, was thrust into crisis over the weekend after a staff error led to the creation of 620,000 so-called “ghost bitcoins” on its internal ledger — an amount equivalent to nearly 3 percent of the total global bitcoin supply. The incident occurred at around 7 p.m. Friday, when Bithumb mistakenly distributed 620,000 bitcoins to hundreds of users during a promotional event. The error stemmed from an employee entering the re