A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally gave away billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to its customers, while the price of Bitcoin itself hit its lowest level in 16 months, according to reports. Bithumb, the South Korean exchange, mistakenly distributed over 40 billion (32 billion) worth of Bitcoin to its customers on Friday, briefly making some of them multi-millionaires, according to BBC World. Meanwhile, the price of a single Bitcoin fell to as low as 60,000 (44,000), its lowest point since September 2024, as reported by BBC Technology.
Bithumb had intended to give customers a small cash reward of 2,000 won (1.37), but instead, 2,000 Bitcoins were distributed. The company quickly realized its error and restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the glitch, according to BBC World. The exchange reported that it had recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly sent Bitcoin.
The drop in Bitcoin's price followed months of surging prices, which saw the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of 122,200 in October 2025, according to BBC Technology. Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, told Reuters that investors who had "bet too big, borrowed too much or assumed prices only go up are now finding out the hard way what real market volatility and risk management look like."
In other business news, YouTube's revenue reached over 60 billion (44 billion) in 2025, according to BBC Business. This figure includes money generated through advertising and paid subscriptions, surpassing streaming rival Netflix's 45 billion revenue. Midia Research senior analyst Hanna Kahlert said the announcement was "perhaps not a surprising one," given the platform's importance to digital natives.
Additionally, a US court ordered Uber to pay 8.5 million (6.2 million) to a woman who claimed she was raped by a driver for the ride-share company, according to BBC Business. The federal lawsuit was heard in Arizona, where a jury found Uber responsible for the driver's behavior. Uber intends to appeal the verdict.
Finally, emails revealed the financial discussions of Prince Andrew with David Rowland, a controversial businessman, according to BBC Business. The emails show Andrew referring to Rowland as his "trusted money man" to Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew was reportedly trying to promote Rowland's financial ventures at the time, when he was the UK's trade envoy.
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