Seoul: The chief of local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb apologized Wednesday for the company's accidental payout of 60 trillion won (US$41.2 billion) in bitcoins, as he vowed to compensate customers who suffered losses due to a sell-off of the tokens. "I sincerely apologize to the people who may be deeply distressed by the erroneous payout made during our promotional event as the person who bears the ultimate responsibility," Lee Jae-won, chief executive officer of Bithumb, said in a parliamentary hearing on the incident.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee stated that the internal control system overseeing ledger balances was unable to detect that more tokens than available were credited. He assured that the company plans to compensate customers who suffered losses from a sharp drop in bitcoin prices, including around 30 people who used its cryptocurrency lending service and experienced a forced liquidation of their assets.

Lee mentioned that Bithumb will set a broader scope for victim relief and provide compensation based on various complaints being received through the Financial Supervisory Service and the company's customer service center. Earlier, the company corrected most of the erroneous credit, except for 1,788 bitcoins that were sold by customers in a 40-minute window before it froze the affected accounts, leading to a brief price drop of bitcoin on its platform.

The exchange has estimated customers' damage from the incident to total around 1 billion won. During the hearing, Kwon Dae-young, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), pledged to require cryptocurrency exchanges to enhance their internal control systems to the same level as other financial institutions, such as banks.