Bithumb Mistakenly Airdrops 620,000 "Phantom Balance" Bitcoins Sparking Community Debate, Actual Platform Reserve May Only Be 42,000 Coins

BlockBeats News, February 7th: The second largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Bithumb, mistakenly airdropped a total of 620,000 Bitcoins to 695 customers due to a staff error yesterday (which accounted for 2.95% of the total BTC supply). Although the platform has since recovered almost all of the losses (only 0.3% remains), the platform's excessive airdrop of 620,000 Bitcoins still sparked a community discussion on "Ghost Balance on CEX."

It is reported that Bithumb has not directly disclosed detailed BTC reserve amounts or complete PoR on-chain proof. However, earlier South Korean media outlet MK.co.kr clearly stated in a report that by the end of the third quarter of last year, Bithumb was storing and safeguarding 42,619 Bitcoins. Even if the subsequent Bitcoin reserves have increased, it is certainly far less than the quantity of 620,000 Bitcoins.

This incident is clearly an internal ledger error and not a real airdrop of 620,000 BTC from a hot wallet or on-chain. The additional BTC in users' accounts is a "Ghost Balance," and the platform does not actually hold that much BTC to support withdrawals. Therefore, when some users sold off, the price plummeted, but there was no large-scale on-chain transfer.

It is worth noting that almost all mainstream CEXs do not consistently record every user transaction on-chain; instead, they use internal databases/ledgers (centralized ledgers) to manage user balances. This means that the "balance" users see is primarily an internal record, not a real-time on-chain balance. Only when users withdraw will real on-chain data changes occur. Most CEXs have risk control, multiple audits, and automated checks to prevent extreme errors. Bithumb has exposed an internal control vulnerability (where employees can directly modify large reward units), and South Korean regulators have intervened in the investigation.