To the Moon! BlockFi mistakenly distributed dollar rewards in "Bitcoin units," sparking rumors of a screenshot showing 700 Bitcoins.

A screenshot showing a reward of 700 bitcoins is circulating wildly on social media. It appears that a major incident has occurred on the cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi, not related to platform security, but rather due to an official error in changing the reward from "USDT" to be in units of "bitcoins." Based on current prices, the reward is nearly 40,000 times higher than originally intended.

BlockFi "AirDrops" Bitcoin

Reddit and Twitter are flooded with users' screenshots claiming that BlockFi mistakenly distributed dollar rewards in Bitcoin units. This was part of the stablecoin marketing campaign launched by the platform in March, where rewards were distributed based on users' trading volume levels.

BlockFi: Error Affects Fewer Than 100 Users

BlockFi stated on Reddit:

Less than 100 users received rewards not meant for them on 5/17. BlockFi has reached out to the affected users to rectify the issue. As of the first quarter of this year, our assets under management total $15 billion, and this will not impact BlockFi's operations or user funds, and we have taken measures to prevent such errors in the future.

BlockFi Users Claim Threats

Despite BlockFi's efforts to mitigate the situation, a screenshot of a 701 Bitcoin reward continues to circulate in the community.

Additionally, many users claim to have received emails from BlockFi threatening legal action. Reddit user rpfitzpatrick criticized BlockFi, stating:

BlockFi messed up this time. They transferred BTC instead of GUSD. They have reversed the Bitcoin deposit, but I haven't touched the GUSD. Two days later, when I withdrew my USDC, they sent an email claiming I moved money that didn't belong to me, and if not returned within two hours, action would be taken.

rpfitzpatrick continued to vent: "Fxxx you, this is my money. They can't even pull up the previous transaction records to see what happened. I've only used BlockFi for a month, it should be easy to retrieve the records. This is how they treat new users."

Many in the community have linked the market downturn to the BlockFi incident. While some users on Reddit and CoinDesk have successfully withdrawn additional rewards, it is a minority. Given the market size, it is unlikely to cause a drop of more than 10%.

The bigger impact may be on BlockFi itself. With users worldwide, it is unlikely they will recover all mistakenly transferred funds. Users are also not likely to exploit BlockFi due to this incident but may instead steer clear of such a platform that commits such outrageous errors.