Georgia’s currency, the lari (GEL), was worth $290 instead of $2.90 because of a bug. Users of Coinbase (COIN) in the Eastern European country of Georgia were able to exploit advantage of a price bug that let them cash out their holdings for 100 times the exchange rate. This gave them a profit of thousands of dollars.
On Wednesday, the lari (GEL), which is the country’s currency, was worth $290 instead of $2.90. In an email to CoinDesk, Coinbase said that the missing decimal point was due to “a technical issue on the part of a third party.”
- Because of the mistake, Coinbase users who had $100 worth of lari could send it to their bank account for $10,000.
- Some users who were able to take advantage said that their banks froze their bank accounts and debit cards after they sent money to them. Coinbase said that this was not done at its request.
- Coinbase said that about 1% of its users, or about 1,000 people, took advantage of the issue.
- The crypto exchange hasn’t said how much money it lost, but a spokesperson said it was “a small, non-material amount.”
- “We fixed the issue and are working to get back the money that was withdrawn out in error,” the spokesperson said.
- Blockworks had already reported them about the wrong price.
