Seoul: The country's financial watchdog announced plans to introduce a series of measures aimed at imposing harsher penalties on financial companies experiencing IT infrastructure-related accidents. This initiative is part of an effort to strengthen IT security and protect consumer interests more effectively.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) intends to implement measures that will include punitive penalties and stricter regulations on IT security within the financial sector. This move follows an incident involving Bithumb, the nation's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, which mistakenly transferred 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users during a promotional event.
The erroneous transfer resulted in an average of 2,490 bitcoins being distributed to each participant, equating to 244 billion won (US$166 million) per user. Some recipients took advantage of the situation by selling the bitcoins, leading to a temporary but significant drop in prices. Bithumb reported that it had managed to recover 618,212 bitcoins and subsequently recouped 93 percent of the 1,788 bitcoins sold by users.
In addition to addressing IT accidents, the FSS announced plans to investigate price-rigging activities within the virtual asset market this year.