Bithumb is promoting the re-election of current CEO Lee Zai-won to maintain operational continuity and stability

According to the Korea Times, Bithumb, South Korea's second-largest cryptocurrency trading platform, still insists on promoting the re-election of current CEO Lee Jae-won despite facing a series of disputes and regulatory penalties. Previously, on February 6, 2026, Bithumb made a serious operational error during its promotional activities, resulting in the erroneous issuance of approximately 15 times the actual amount of Bitcoin held by the trading platform to users, totaling approximately 620,000 BTC, exposing Bithumb's major flaws in internal verification, asset management and ledger systems. The error was discovered and controlled within 35 minutes. The trading platform froze transactions and withdrawals from the affected 695 accounts and claimed to have recovered 99.7% of the misissued assets, but the incident still triggered a brief panic in the market.<br /> The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Korea Financial Services Commission imposed multiple penalties on Bithumb, including a six-month suspension of some businesses, a fine of 36.8 billion won (approximately US$24 million) for anti-money laundering violations, a warning to CEO Lee Jae-won, and a six-month suspension of the reporting officer.<br /> The term of Bithumb CEO Li Zaiyuan will end this month. The company plans to hold a regular shareholders 'meeting on March 31 to review a proposal to extend his term for another two years. Despite major failures and regulatory pressures, Bithumb chose to move forward with re-election to maintain operational continuity and stability rather than engage in a management reshuffle. In similar circumstances, if Upbit's CEO changed to an advisory role after receiving a FIU warning, management often faced greater accountability.