A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally distributed billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to its customers, while the price of Bitcoin hit its lowest level in 16 months, according to reports. The exchange, Bithumb, mistakenly gave away the equivalent of $40 billion (32 billion) in Bitcoin to its customers on Friday, but quickly recovered almost all of the tokens. Meanwhile, the price of a single Bitcoin fell to $60,000 (44,000), its lowest point since September 2024, before slightly recovering, according to 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 stated it had restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the error. According to BBC World, Bithumb said it had recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 Bitcoins mistakenly sent. The company stated that the matter had nothing to do with external hacking.
The drop in Bitcoin's price followed months of surging prices, which saw the cryptocurrency reach an all-time high of $122,200 in October 2025. 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." Investors had been encouraged by Donald Trump's involvement in the sector, according to BBC Technology.
In other business news, YouTube's revenue for 2025 was revealed to be over $60 billion (44 billion), as Google targets increasing its subscriber base. This figure includes money generated through advertising and paid subscriptions, surpassing streaming rival Netflix's $45 billion revenue. According to BBC Business, this appears to be the first time Google has individually highlighted its video platform's yearly revenue since acquiring it in 2006. Midia Research senior analyst Hanna Kahlert said that while it was a big announcement, it was "perhaps not a surprising one" given the platform's importance.
Also, 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. The federal lawsuit was heard in Arizona, where a jury found Uber responsible for the driver's behavior. Uber intends to appeal the verdict, according to BBC Business.
Finally, emails from the Epstein files revealed the relationship between Prince Andrew and David Rowland, a financier. The emails show Andrew referring to Rowland as his "trusted money man" to Jeffrey Epstein, and attempting to promote Rowland's financial ventures while he was the UK's trade envoy. However, Epstein appeared reluctant to engage with Rowland after being warned by the UK press, according to BBC Business.
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