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One input mistake at South Korea’s Bithumb turned a routine promo payout into a $44 billion disaster for a simple reason: crypto moves at internet speed, but many exchanges still run on back-office habits built for slower systems.
On Feb. 6, Bithumb meant to hand out tiny cash rewards as part of a promotion, about 2,000 won per recipient. Instead, its internal system credited affected users with Bitcoin, at least 2,000 BTC each, and the totals added up to roughly 620,000 BTC on the exchange’s…