Bithumb has disclosed that it had two similar mispayment incidents in the past, in addition to the latest case. It also emerged that approval authority for this incident rested with an assistant manager-level employee rather than executives.

At an emergency inquiry on the Bithumb mispayment case by the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on Feb. 11, Bithumb said, "There were 2 mispayment incidents previously."

Lawmakers from both parties criticised the incident as a structural problem stemming from shortcomings in the internal control system, not a simple mistake.

Democratic Party lawmaker Min Byung-duk (민병덕) asked Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won (이재원) about responsibility for the incident and the approval line. When Min asked, "Who pressed the payment button?" Lee replied, "It was a mistake by the employee in charge." When Min asked the employee's rank, Lee confirmed, "The employee was at the assistant manager level."

Min said that even though disbursement of funds on the scale of 60 trillion won requires a board resolution, an assistant manager-level employee handled it with full authority, showing the absence of a system. He said it was "a system worse than a neighbourhood mom-and-pop store."

Lee responded that internal control procedures, including multiple approvals, were omitted during a process to upgrade the operating system.