Bitcoin User Pays A Whopping $3.1 Mln Transaction Fees For 139 BTC Transfer

A Bitcoin user has managed to pay a staggering $3.1 million in transaction fees for transferring 139.42 BTC, receiving only 55.77 BTC in return. This incident, marking the 8th highest transaction fee in Bitcoin’s 14-year history, has left the crypto community in awe and speculation.

The BTC wallet address bc1qn3d…wekrnl initiated the hefty transfer of 139.42 BTC to bc1qyf…km36t4 on November 23. However, the sender found themselves unwittingly paying an exorbitant transaction fee, capturing the attention of the mining pool Antpool, which verified the transaction on block 818087.

Suspecting: Bitcoins Sent By RBF Policy

Social media buzzed with speculation, attributing the astronomical fee to the sender’s choice, the Replace-By-Fee (RBF) node policy, and potential unawareness.

RBF enables the replacement of an unconfirmed cryptocurrency transaction with a higher fee, speeding up its clearance. The sender may have selected a high fee intentionally, but RBF and potential unawareness likely played a role.

A mempool developer known as Mononaut chimed in on X, suggesting that the user might not have known that RBF orders are irrevocable. The sender may have attempted to cancel the fee by replacing it multiple times, with the last replacement spiking the fee by an additional 20%, tacking on 12.54824636 BTC in fees.

Another user named BitcoinBadger has weighed in, suggesting that the excessive fee may not be a mere oversight but a deliberate move to allocate funds to a specific miner or mining pool.

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Not The First Time

Interestingly, this isn’t the first instance of a Bitcoin user inadvertently paying an astronomical transaction fee. In September, Paxos accidentally sent $500,000 in fees for a $2000 BTC transfer.  However, F2pool, the verifying miner, returned the accidental fee, highlighting a stark contrast to the current situation with Antpool.

Mononaut emphasized that the likelihood of Antpool returning the funds depends on its payout policies and obligations to share transaction fees with miners, raising anticipation for the mining pool’s response.

The massive amount of gas fees was not only addressed by Bitcoin-knowledgeable peeps but also by critics. People have also mocked the payment system satirically by saying “future of payment system.”

BitcoinBadger’s insight adds a layer of speculation and complexity to the growing story of the high transaction cost, contributing to the broader discourse about the complexities of Bitcoin transactions and the importance of an informed user base.

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