Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said it mistakenly distributed about $44 billion worth of bitcoin to customers during a promotional event, triggering a sharp sell-off on the exchange.

According to a recent report by Reuters, Bithumb said that the error occurred on Friday when it intended to issue small promotional rewards to users, typically worth at least 2,000 Korean won (around 1.40 USD). Instead, hundreds of customers received at least 2,000 bitcoins each.

Acknowledging the mistake, the company had recovered 99.7 percent of the 620,000 bitcoins involved after identifying the mistake and restricting trading and withdrawals for affected accounts within 35 minutes. In total, 695 customers were impacted by the distribution error.

In a statement, the company sought to reassure users that the error was not the result of a cyberattack or security breach. It said there were no issues with its system security or the management of customer assets.
South Korea’s financial authorities responded by warning that the incident underscored broader risks in the virtual asset market. 

While Bithumb said there were no hacking or security breaches, the Korean Financial Services Commission and other regulators said the incident had exposed vulnerabilities in the handling of virtual assets.

Bitcoin fell as much as 17 percent on Bithumb on Friday evening, dropping to 81.1 million won before recovering. It was later trading at around 104.5 million won.