A Seoul court has ordered a Bithumb customer to return 194 million won, or about $140,400, after the user sold Bitcoin that had been mistakenly credited during the exchange’s February system error. The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the cash proceeds from those sales amounted to unjust enrichment.

The decision is the second court win for Bithumb in two days as it seeks to recover losses tied to an internal mistake that briefly made hundreds of customer accounts appear to hold roughly 620,000 BTC. Thursday’s ruling covers the money generated by the sales, not any Bitcoin the customer may still possess.

Court ruling follows March claim

Bithumb filed the lawsuit in March to recover money linked to the February 6 incident. In the latest decision, the court sided with the exchange and ordered repayment of the sale proceeds from the wrongly credited Bitcoin.

The ruling came a day after the same court awarded Bithumb 5 million won, about $3,620, in a separate but related case. Two more claims are still pending, involving 14.8 million won, or about $10,700, and 500 million won, roughly $362,000.

Across the four cases, Bithumb is seeking about 714 million won, or roughly $517,000. Some of those filings were served by public notice, showing that the litigation is still only one part of the exchange’s broader effort to recover losses from the error.

How the miscredit happened

The underlying mistake occurred during a random-box promotion that was supposed to distribute small cash prizes. According to the report, a staff member entered Bitcoin instead of Korean won, causing Bithumb’s internal records to reflect massive BTC balances that did not actually exist.

As a result, customer accounts briefly showed around 620,000 BTC in aggregate, far above Bithumb’s actual holdings of about 40,000 BTC. Trading continued for about 40 minutes before the exchange halted activity, and roughly 1,788 BTC made it onto the order book during that period.

The incident pushed the BTC/KRW trading pair down about 17%. Bithumb later reversed most of the false balances on the same day. By March 10, the exchange said it had recovered 99.7% of the Bitcoin involved in the broader miscredit, while also moving to freeze a small number of outstanding coins.

Recovery effort and customer compensation

Bithumb’s legal strategy has focused on reclaiming assets or proceeds tied to the mistaken balances. The latest judgment is notable because it addresses the fiat proceeds from sold Bitcoin rather than determining the status of any remaining BTC held by the customer.

The exchange also offered compensation to some affected traders, paying 110% in certain cases. That step came alongside its efforts to unwind the internal accounting error and limit the damage from trades executed before the halt.

Regulatory scrutiny widened after the incident

The February error quickly drew attention from South Korean authorities, who reportedly treated it as a control failure and opened an emergency review the following day. Financial regulators examined the case, and lawmakers began an urgent inquiry into how the miscredit was allowed to occur.

The Financial Supervisory Service said the mistaken balances could qualify as unjust enrichment, a view that supports Bithumb’s attempts to recover funds through the courts. The fallout also led regulators to impose broader safeguards, including a requirement for licensed exchanges to reconcile customer ledgers with actual holdings every five minutes.

Separately, the Bank of Korea considered a market circuit breaker in response to the disruption. With two judgments now in its favor and two claims still unresolved, Bithumb’s next confirmed step remains the continued court process to recover the remaining amounts tied to the February miscredit.

Source: cryptopotato.com