South Korean regulators say users who sold Bithumb tokens mistakenly issued by Bithumb are legally obligated to return the assets.

PANews reported on February 9th that, according to Reuters, Lee Chan-jin, head of the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea, stated at a press conference on February 9th that the recent incident where the Bithumb exchange mistakenly distributed over $40 billion worth of Bitcoin to customers exposed structural problems in the electronic system for virtual assets, demonstrating the need for stronger regulation to address the vulnerabilities of the cryptocurrency sector. Lee Chan-jin pointed out that this incident reveals the need for significant improvements to the regulatory framework in integrating virtual assets into the traditional financial system. He particularly emphasized that the problem of "ghost currencies" must be resolved first before cryptocurrencies can become traditional financial assets.

Preliminary findings from financial authorities indicate that 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent by Bithumb on Friday have been recovered. Of the 1,786 bitcoins sold before the exchange suspended trading, 93% have been recovered. Lee Chan-jin added that users who sold the mistakenly received bitcoins have a legal obligation to return them to the exchange.