Bithumb is promoting the re-election of current CEO Lee Jae-won to maintain operational continuity and stability

According to the Korea Times, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, is still pushing for the re-election of its current CEO, Lee Jae-won, despite facing a series of controversies and regulatory penalties. Previously, on February 6, 2026, Bithumb experienced a serious operational error during a promotional event, resulting in the erroneous distribution of approximately 620,000 BTC, about 15 times the actual amount held by the exchange, to users. This exposed significant flaws in Bithumb's internal verification, asset management, and ledger systems. The error was discovered and controlled within 35 minutes, with the exchange freezing transactions and withdrawals for 695 affected accounts, claiming to have recovered 99.7% of the erroneously issued assets, but the incident still triggered a brief panic in the market.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the South Korean Financial Services Commission imposed several penalties on Bithumb, including a six-month suspension of some operations, a 36.8 billion won (approximately 24 million USD) fine for anti-money laundering violations, a warning to CEO Lee Jae-won, and a six-month suspension for the reporting officer.

CEO Lee Jae-won's term will end this month, and the company plans to hold a regular shareholders' meeting on March 31 to discuss a proposal to extend his term for another two years. Despite the significant failures and regulatory pressure, Bithumb has chosen to push for re-election to maintain operational continuity and stability rather than undergo a management reshuffle. In similar situations in the past, such as when Upbit's CEO transitioned to an advisory role after receiving a warning from the FIU, management often faced greater accountability.