South Korea’s central bank is pushing for tighter rules on crypto exchanges after a massive mistake shook the market.
The Bank of Korea is asking for “circuit breakers” on trading platforms—basically a system that can pause trading if something goes wrong or prices start crashing fast.
This comes after a huge error at Bithumb, one of the country’s biggest crypto exchanges. Back in February, a simple clerical mistake led to the accidental transfer of about $42 billion worth of Bitcoin to users.
The problem started when the system processed a transaction incorrectly—sending Bitcoin instead of a small amount of Korean won. Within minutes, users began selling, prices dropped, and panic spread across the platform.
Even though Bithumb quickly stopped trading and reversed most of the transactions, some damage was already done. Around 1,788 Bitcoin were sold off, forcing the company to cover losses of about $125 million.
Now, the central bank says this kind of incident shows a big weakness in the crypto industry. Compared to traditional finance, exchanges don’t have strong enough internal controls.
To fix this, officials are suggesting:
- Automatic systems to catch human errors before they go through
- Real-time checks to match internal data with the blockchain
- Trading pauses to stop panic during sudden market shocks
In simple terms, they want crypto platforms to act more like traditional stock markets—safer, more controlled, and better prepared for mistakes.
