TL;DR Breakdown
- Seoul court orders Bithumb to refund victims of a withdrawal accident in 2018.
- The court says the victims should be paid $996,332 for their loss.
Court Holds Bithumb Responsible for Withdrawal Accident
Bithumb, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, was ordered by a district court to compensate six victims of a bitcoin withdrawal-gone-wrong in 2018.
The incident happened in November 2018, when six clients wanted to move funds from their wallet making use of the quick-reference address book function provided by Bithumb. However, the customers were shocked to find out that the funds were not credited to their wallets but to an unknown user’s account.
When the affected customers lodged a complaint, an anonymous employee revealed that the mistake was not from the customers. However, the employee further said that it is impossible for the company to admit its fault in public, as there was a disclaimer on the quick-reference book stating that the company will not be held liable for any error that might arise from using the book.
Bithumb to Pay 1.1 Billion Won to Victims.
The incident led to the group filing a case against Bithumb, asking to be recompensed. The victims were seeking to be paid $1 million dollars for their loss.
However, the presiding judge ordered the company to refund the plaintiffs a total sum of 1.1 billion won (equivalent to 996,332 USD) for damages. At the time of the incidence, 1 BTC was trading at $4,673 while it traded for $19,000 when the litigation came to a close.
The court insisted that the refund should be evaluated using the closing price of the day the lawsuit ended. According to a Seoul lawyer, he said that the company had been targeted by hackers on two occasions, in 2018 and 2019.
