MTN News reported that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has initiated disciplinary procedures against Bithumb in connection with the recently occurred 'phantom coin' incident. Based on the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, the FSS confirmed that Bithumb's failure to match its actual holdings with the quantities recorded in its ledgers is the reason for the sanctions. As there is no direct legal basis to punish internal control deficiencies under current law, a violation of the ledger keeping obligation appears to have been applied. At the time, Bithumb generated 620,000 Bitcoins in its ledger, more than 13 times its internal circulation, due to an input error in event rewards. The fact that one assistant-level employee handled the procedure alone, and internal controls did not function, is cited as the core of the incident. The industry notes the application of a violation of the ledger keeping obligation instead of internal control deficiencies amid a regulatory vacuum, viewing it as a human error similar to Samsung Securities' 'phantom stock' incident in the past.
