The Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea has initiated an official investigation into Bithumb following the incident involving an overpayment of Bitcoin worth $44 billion and potential failures in custody and control.

The Financial Supervisory Service #CelebratingNewYearOnGateSquare FSS( has escalated the field investigation to an official inspection of Bithumb in Seoul in early February 2026, adding personnel to investigate how approximately 620,000 Bitcoins were paid out despite Bithumb's reported holdings of only around 46,000 BTC, and the use of exchange systems without documentation for custody operations.
Regulators are focusing on potential violations of the virtual asset user protection law, which requires custodians to hold trusted assets, questioning whether the overpaid coins could have been withdrawn en masse, as well as weak points such as the approval of payouts by a single individual; the results will be used to develop the second phase of virtual asset legislation in Korea and possibly tighten control or ownership rules.