The first ruling in Bithumb’s civil suits will address whether users who sold wrongly credited Bitcoin and kept the proceeds must return about KRW 194 million after the exchange’s February rewards error.
A South Korean court is due to deliver its first ruling on August 27 in Bithumb’s lawsuit over mistakenly credited Bitcoin, in a case that tests whether users who sold the assets and kept the cash must return unjust enrichment. The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to hand down the decision at 2 p.m. in the first of four civil suits Bithumb filed in March against users tied to about KRW 194 million. The dispute stems from Bithumb’s February error, which misissued 620,000 Bitcoin as event rewards in KRW points. After the incident, the exchange said it recovered 99% of the previously unrecovered 1,788 Bitcoin. The case highlights how operational mistakes at crypto trading platforms can quickly lead to legal fights over ownership, restitution and the treatment of mistaken digital-asset transfers.