Lee Jae-won (이재원), CEO of Bithumb, bowed in apology over what was described as a “60 trillion won-scale mistaken bitcoin payout” incident, saying, “I sincerely apologise for causing concern to the public.”

The National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee held a plenary meeting on Tuesday and convened an emergency inquiry into what was described as the “60 trillion won-scale mistaken bitcoin payout” incident at the digital asset exchange Bithumb.

Lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties defined the incident as a “systemic flaw,” not a simple computer error, and criticised financial authorities for poor oversight.

During the questioning, lawmakers pointed to the exchange issuing and circulating virtual assets on its system that it did not hold. They criticised it as “in effect the issuance of counterfeit banknotes” and as exposing the risks of ledger-based trading.

Lapses in the internal control system also came under scrutiny.

Lawmakers said an astronomical amount was not filtered out by warning systems or approval steps until it was approved and paid due to an employee’s input mistake, drawing blunt criticism that it was “a system worse than a neighbourhood mom-and-pop shop.”

Appearing at the hearing, Lee bowed again, saying, “I sincerely apologise for causing concern to the public.” He said most of the wrongly paid amount had been recovered and that he would take responsibility for the unrecovered portion.

He also pledged to fully compensate users who were forcibly liquidated after a steep price drop.

Meanwhile, Lee Jung-hoon (이정훈), a former chairman known as Bithumb’s beneficial owner, did not attend the hearing.