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Ethereum Miner Returns ‘Erroneously High' $22 Million Gas Fee to Bitfinex's Wallet

Posted by Andries Van Tonder on September 29, 2021 - 9:03am

Ethereum Miner Returns ‘Erroneously High’ $22 Million Gas Fee to Bitfinex’s Wallet

After spending more than $20 million in gas fees for a $100,000 transaction, decentralized crypto exchange DeversiFi announced that the miner has returned the sum. 

By Liam Frost

Yesterday, a transaction stemming from a crypto wallet attached to the exchange Bitfinex mistakenly paid a fee of around $22.3 million, or 7,626 Ethereum, for a $100,000 transaction. 

Shortly after, the mining pool has returned the erroneous fee back to Bitfinex’s wallet via three transactions of 1 ETH7,385 ETH, and 240 ETH, respectively.

A pie chart showing miners market share.

While the mining pool that received the enormous gas fee is anonymous, it is currently ranked 9th among the largest Ethereum miners and is responsible for roughly 3.1% of the network’s hash rate, according to Etherscan.

“Thank you to the miner of block 13307440 who we can confirm is returning 7,626 ETH that were incorrectly paid today as a tx fee,” decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) DeversiFi tweeted.

DeversiFi was previously known as Ethfinex, a sister exchange of crypto trading platform Bitfinex. In 2019, the two firms parted company via a “management buyout” and Ethfinex was rebranded into DeversiFi. Notably, the three co-founders of the DEX also worked at Bitfinex in the past, as per Bloomberg.

The connection doesn’t stop there, however. 

Due to yesterday’s events, it has now become clear that the DEX also has access to at least one of Bitfinex’s crypto wallets to help subside transaction costs for users.

Transaction error: Bitfinex or DeversiFi?

“At 11:10 UTC on the 27th September a deposit transaction was made using a hardware wallet from the main DeversiFi user interface with an erroneously high gas fee,” the DEX later acknowledged on Twitter.

A spokesperson for Bitfinex also confirmed to Decrypt that the transaction in question “belongs to DeversiFi.”

“This transaction was a transaction to deposit funds on the DeversiFi L2 solution. These transactions are extremely rare and third-party companies cover the costs of such integrations. DeversiFi confirmed that they will take care of it,” a Bitfinex representative told Decrypt.

The Neal and Janet Brown Family Trust Holy cow! One token I own is experiencing outrageous ETH miner fees, but they are $100 at the worst NOT $23 Million! I can't believe whomever submitted this transaction even approved it with the fee 230 times greater than the value of the deposit! Wow! I am stunned.
September 30, 2021 at 4:45am
Andries Van Tonder Thank you Bill
September 29, 2021 at 1:18pm
Bill Rippel An interesting article, thanks for sharing, Andries.
September 29, 2021 at 1:00pm
Andries Van Tonder thank you for reading it Corneliu
September 29, 2021 at 9:45am
Corneliu Boghian thanks for info
September 29, 2021 at 9:31am