Bitcoins

ended up giving away $40 billion in bitcoins

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One of the largest houses in cryptocurrency exchange from South Korea wanted to reward its users with a symbolic promotion for their operations. However, a mistake has made the promotion of the company on everyone’s lips today…and not exactly for the better. For a few minutes, several hundred customers Bithumb They saw their accounts filled with bitcoins worth several billion dollars. What should have been a small promotional prize turned into a mistake that, on his screen, became billionaires to normal users. A conversion error. Bithumb’s original idea was to offer a reward of 2,000 won (approximately $1.37 in exchange) to users who participated in a company promotional event. The equivalent of a welcome coupon for newcomers. The problem came when, instead of sending that small amount in won, the system ended up sending bitcoins to the accounts of the new clients. According to published the BBCthe failure occurred when an employee entered the indicator “BTC” in the payment field instead of “Korean won”, so the platform executed the reward in cryptocurrencies instead of local currency. That simple misplaced piece of information led the company to mistakenly transfer some 620,000 bitcoins, a figure that, at current prices, is around $44 billion. A mistake that destabilized the market. Bithumb estimated that about 249 users of its platform received bitcoins by mistake and the failure affected about 695 clients who operated on the platform. It is estimated+ that, on average, each user was assigned about 2,490 bitcoins, which represents a value of around 144 million euros. Seeing the new balance of bitcoins in their account, several of these new “accident millionaires” rushed to sell, generating an avalanche of orders that caused the price of bitcoin to fall within Bithumb itself. about 10% in a matter of minutes. Bithumb hit the panic button. When the company realized the error, it began to apply restrictions to affected clients, temporarily limiting operations and withdrawals to stop the leak of funds. In its assessment of the incident, Bithumb assures which managed to recover approximately 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins that were left by mistake, which would leave about 125 bitcoins still pending recovery. The company also points out that what has already been recovered includes some 1,663 bitcoins that users they managed to sell before the platform’s “panic button” was pressed, which activated transaction blocks. Lee Jae-won, the company’s executive director, assured that the company will take the incident as a lesson and will prioritize “customer trust and peace of mind” over external growth. “Paper” Bitcoin. The case has reopened the debate about the so-called “paper bitcoin”, in reference to those transactions that exist within the internal systems of the exchanges but do not always have the real assets that support them behind them. The sum of bitcoins that suddenly appeared in the accounts far exceeds the $5.3 billion in bitcoin assets that Bithumb claims to be in custody, making it clear to what extent much of that “wealth” was only on paper in its internal books. It’s not the first time it happens. It is not the first time that a banking or financial entity makes its users millionaires in a “magical” way. He Financial Times counted a few days ago how Citibank made one of its clients a billionaire by transfer 81 billion dollars when he intended to send him a payment of $280. As happened with the South Korean bitcoin exchange, the bank realized the error and fixed it (unfortunately for the user) in 90 minutes. However, the simple fact that a human error when indicating a figure or inserting the type of currency can shake the entire bitcoin market has set off alarms in the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service, which has announced reviews and does not rule out opening formal investigations if they detect serious failures in internal controls or signs of illegal activity. In Xataka | Cryptocurrencies were supposed to become “independent” from the power of states. The US just killed him with a stroke of the pen Image | Unsplash (Michael Fortsch)

In 2011 a group of investors bought 80,000 bitcoins. They have been sold by 17,000,000% more expensive

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“Hodl“It is the preferred word of cryptocyerents. It is not an acronym, but a kind of meme or internal joke that is simply a variation of the English verb” hold “(maintain, endure). That term contains a good part of the philosophy of these users, which believe that cryptocurrencies They are a long -term bet that it is necessary to maintain for years to obtain the maximum benefit. There are people who are demonstrating that the thing works. 17,000,000% benefit. Last week, A “whale” (Whatle) Bitcoin sold 80,000 bitcoin for 9,500 million dollars. A user in X (formerly Twitter) detected that mass transaction and the Implicit traceability of the block chain De Bitcoin allowed to know that these bitcoins were acquired (or probably undermined) in 2011 and at that time they had a value of $ 54,000. That means that in these 14 years the benefit of those who sold them has been simply amazing: 17,000,000%. But it is not the only one. Another early cryptocrevent Roger see– It also recently sold another 80,000 BTC. Acquired them in 2014 for $ 210,000, and at the beginning of the month the transaction was detected according to which he had sold them for 8,600 million dollars. Your benefit: 4,000,000%. Multimillionaire whales. There have been additional movements that are also very striking although comparatively are in the shadow of the previous two. At the beginning of July two bitcoin portfolios that had been inactive for 14 years transferred 10,000 BTC each to other different wallets. In 2011, those 10,000 BT had cost $ 16,000, and now their joint value would be around 1,000 million dollars. Bitcoin at maximum. These transactions have occurred Just with Bitcoin achieving historical values. On July 14 the cryptocurrency reached $ 123,000, although since then there has been a small correction and the current value is around $ 118,000. Hodl and strong will. Some users joked by saying that this seller will end up regretting when (or rather “yes”) Bitcoin reaches a value of one million dollars, but the truth is that those who have sold are a spectacular example of that Hodl philosophy. Keep your bitcoins all these years has had to be an exercise of extraordinary patience, especially when at this time There have been numerous increases (and descents) important that surely caused great temptations to sell then. They resisted, and now they have seen the reward. Exceptional demand. As they point out In CointegraphBitcoin’s demand is so spectacular that for example the sale of the 80,000 BTC (0.4% of the amount current today) was “completely absorbed by the market” almost immediately. Movements of this magnitude were supposed to affect the price of Bitcoin, but they did not barely. The immediately posterior impact was sensitive (3.5% value drop) but then the side effects of that sale They have been apparently nil. There are analysts who They point that what has happened suggests that BTC will continue to rise soon. Image | KANCHANARA | Erling Løken Andersen In Xataka | Bitcoin reaches a historical maximum exceeding $ 118,000. A bullish rally driven by the hug of institutions

The British who lost 700 million in Bitcoins when he threw his album has just achieved what anyone saw coming: his own series

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In the world there is only one hard drive that nobody has been able to find, but many remember. Contains between 7,500 and 8,000 bitcoins and, According to its owneris buried under tons of garbage in a Newport landfill, Wales. James Howells It has been trying to recover it for more than a decade because its digital assets exceed 700 million euros. He has not succeeded. However, its story is now more valuable than ever: an American producer has bought exclusive rights to turn it into docuserie, podcast and, if everything goes as planned, also into content for social networks. Howells is a computer engineer. He lives in Wales and has been obsessed for years with the idea of ​​recovering that device, which ensures that he keeps the private keys of a digital fortune generated in 2009, when the price of cryptocurrency had not yet risen. At that time, Bitcoin was a newborn experiment. It used to undermine from domestic computers and its value was so low that no one imagined what it would be. Howells was one of the first to get on that wave, and also one of the first to lose everything without having sold anything. A landfill, a digital fortune and an obsession without end to view As told the Guradian years agomore than a decade ago, while cleaning at home, confused hard drives. He threw the wrong. Shortly after, seeing how the price of Bitcoin raised, he realized what he had done. “Do you know when you throw something in the trash and you think ‘it’s a bad idea’? It really happened to me,” he told the newspaper. Since then he is convinced that the device ended up in the Docksway Municipal Villagemanaged by the Newport City Council. And since then, he has also tried to recover it by all possible means. Over the years he has presented different proposals to find the album. In 2022 came to raise an operation of 10.7 million euros To execute with a team of data recovery specialists, environmental engineers and specific machinery. Its plan included the use of artificial intelligence, a robotic arm to sift waste and even Boston Dynamic robot dogss. He also offered part of the money with the authorities and the citizens of Newport. But nothing worked. Authorities have always refused. They allege that environmental risks are too high, that the operation does not guarantee results and that the public cost, in case of failure, would be unassumable. In January 2025the British Superior Court rejected the claim of Howells, claiming that There was no “realistic possibilities” successful Shortly after, the resource was also dismissed. Howells represented himself in the view, using AI tools to prepare his case. It was not enough. Now plan Bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights. And meanwhile, consider another option: Buy the landfill. The City Council has announced that it will close during the 2025–2026 year and plans to convert part of the land in a solar park. For Howells, that decision disassembled one of the key arguments used against him in court: to suspend the activity of the landfill to dig would cause damage to the neighbors. If the closure is already underway, he maintains, there should be no more obstacles. He says he talked to investors and ensures that he has support to acquire the installation “as it is.” This whole route is the one that has captured the attention of Lebula producer based in Los Angeles specialized in multiplatform stories. As we point out above, he has acquired the exclusive rights of Howells’s history to develop what they have entitled ‘The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells‘, a project that will combine different formats and channels. The objective is not only to tell the past, but also to follow in real time the next steps of the protagonist. The initiative includes “a premium format docuserie”, a narrative Póstcast and a short content strategy for social platforms. Lebul defines the project as “a live treasure search” that mixes technology, judicial drama and personal ambition with a very current backdrop: the promise of cryptocurrencies. As explained by the company, CGI effects and high -level narrative resources will be used to recreate the key moments of history and show the technical plan proposed by Howells. “This is not just content,” said Reese Van Allen, president of Unscripted Entertainment in Lebul. “It is a real -acting technological thriller With almost one billion dollars at stake, and Lebul is proud to bring it to the world. “The company affirms that the project has already aroused the interest of streaming platforms, global sponsors and relevant figures of the crypto ecosystem. At the moment, however, we do not know what service we could see, if it becomes a reality. “After seeing the documentary, people will understand that it is not crazy” Filming is scheduled for the summer of 2025, with an estimated premiere between October and November. The producer has also confirmed that the story will include the purchase attempt of the landfill, the last judicial failures and the current state of the conflict with the City Council. For Howells, this project represents a unique opportunity: “It is the first time that I will be able to clearly teach what we want to do in the landfill. After seeing the documentary, people will understand that it is not crazy,” told the BBC. The case has caught the attention of dozens of producers over the years. According to Howells himself, He received more than 200 proposalsincluding some winners of the Bafta and the Emmy. Until now he always said it was not the time. The legal battles were open, and the story still had no shape. Lebul’s announcement marks a change. For the first time, its history becomes a media project with calendar, budget and ambitions digital distribution. Is the hard drive really there? Is it still intact after more than a decade underground? Will you keep private … Read more

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