Bank of Korea Proposes Crypto Exchange Circuit Breakers to Prevent Repeat of Bithumb Blunder

South Korea’s crypto trading market is expanding rapidly, but exchanges’ internal controls and safeguards against abnormal volatility still lag those of the securities market. The Bank of Korea (BOK) says operational errors could spread quickly without an automatic trading-halt mechanism, undermining investor confidence and financial stability. It is therefore calling for stock-market-style circuit breakers.

In February 2026, a Bithumb employee mistakenly issued 620,000 BTC, valued at about $42 billion at the time, triggering sharp price swings. In April that year, the BOK published a report formally recommending legislation requiring cryptocurrency exchanges to introduce stock-style circuit breakers to prevent similar errors from recurring.