Unfortunate Error, Crypto.com issued a customer $7.2 million instead of a $68 refund mistakenly

Due to an unfortunate error, the Los Angeles Lakers arena sponsorship and Matt Damon-endorsed bitcoin exchange Crypto.com accidentally deposited $10.5 million AUD ($7.2 million USD) to an Australian customer instead of giving a usual $100 AUD ($68 USD). The exchange didn’t even identify the issue until seven months later, by which point a chunk of the money had already been spent.

The first transfer took place in May 2021, after an employee inadvertently put an account number into the payment amount area. Crypto.com only discovered the error during an audit in December 2021.

Instead of reporting the inaccurate refund to Crypto.com, the consumer in question, Thevamanogari Manivel, allegedly transferred the money to a joint account and spent $1.3 million AUD ($890,526 USD) on a lavish five-bedroom property for her sister.

The corporation is now fighting for its money in the Victoria Supreme Court with a lawsuit. In February, Manivel’s account was successfully frozen by Crypto.com. Manivel has also been ordered by the court to sell the house and return the money (with interest) from the transaction. The case will be heard again in court in October, and Crypto.com has declined to comment.

I suppose a crypto winter isn’t the only reason exchanges have been losing money recently — fat-fingered blunders are also a concern. Earlier this week, the Solana-based decentralized exchange OptiFi lost $661,000 after a developer used the deadly “Solana program close” command to shut down the whole software operating the exchange. To avoid such scenarios in the future, the exchange now calls for a warning message when employing the prompt.