Bithumb, South Korea’s market-leading crypto exchange, has been ordered to pay compensation to the victims of a 2018 “accidental” bitcoin (BTC) “withdrawal” mishap that left them out of pocket. But in a sting in the tale, the presiding judge ordered the payment to be made in fiat – at rock-bottom crypto winter prices.
Per Fn News, a group of six Bithumb customers had brought forward the legal case, complaining that in November 2018, the exchange had provided them with faulty information – leading them to send bitcoin to an unknown wallet.
The customers had intended to transfer their funds from their Bithumb wallet to an unspecified third-party wallet or exchange and used a quick-reference address book function hosted by Bithumb in order to do so.
However, the court heard, when the customers tried to send their BTC to an address on the book, they were dismayed to learn that their funds had not been moved to another exchange after all – but instead had been sent to a wallet whose owner is still unknown.
The confusion deepened when the customers contacted the Bithumb customer service center, where an employee advised that the exchange was aware that there had been a mistake, and that the customers in question had done “nothing wrong.”
However, the employee advised that the exchange could not publicly admit its fault, as a disclaimer was included on the transfer instructions claiming that it was not responsible for any errors caused by using the quick-reference addresses book – and advising customers to check for possible inaccuracies.
The group had been seeking almost USD 1 million in compensation, but the judge ordered the exchange to compensate the six at the BTC rate on the date the incident occurred – in the dead of the crypto winter of 2018-2019, on a date when bitcoin was trading for just over USD 4,660.
The token is currently trading at around USD 45,000 on most exchanges.
Cryptonews.com has contacted Bithumb with a request for comment.
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