Bitcoin Miner Returns 8.18 BTC From Overpaid Transaction Fee

In a fortunate turn of events, the trader who lost over $800,000 in bitcoin (BTC) due to a fat finger mistake has received the money back. Less than two weeks ago, this market participant lost 8.18 BTC while executing a transaction, paying way more than the average transaction fee. However, the entity that mined the transaction block has refunded the assets.

An announcement by the Bitcoin miner Foundry USA Pool, the largest Bitcoin mining pool by total hashrate, revealed that the trader received the funds after careful consideration by the team. Foundry USA Pool mined the block and contacted the trader after discovering the outrageous fee.

“Our team at Foundry has been in touch with the individual affected and, after careful consideration, have decided to refund the transaction fee,” the Bitcoin miner tweeted.

Bitcoin Miner Returns Large Transaction Fee

Cointab reported on December 20 that the trader paid 91,127x more than they were supposed to for a BTC transfer worth $13,900. BTC was valued above $99,000 at the time of the transaction, and the fee amounted to roughly $804,150. With BTC trading around $94,800 on December 29 – the day of the refund – Foundry USA Pool returned approximately $776,000 to the trader.

Foundry USA Pool told TheMinerMag that the refund did not affect the pool’s daily payouts to its customers, which are determined by excluding the three highest and three lowest fee blocks.

“We have received numerous messages from across the industry, and we want to extend our thanks to everyone who reached out on the user’s behalf. Please note that this decision was made after thorough deliberation, and we will continue to handle these instances on a case-by-case basis,” the Foundry USA Pool stated in its tweet.

Reversing Fat Finger Mistakes

Although the trader’s mistake marked one of the largest transaction fees paid in Bitcoin’s history, more significant incidents have occurred. A trader paid $3.1 million in BTC to transfer bitcoins worth $2 million in November 2023. They were fortunate enough to be reimbursed by the leading Asian Bitcoin mining pool, AntPool, which processed the transfer.

In a much smaller case, the blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos spent $510,000 BTC in September 2023 to transfer bitcoins worth less than $2,000. The Bitcoin miner F2Pool processed the transaction and returned the overpayment to Paxos.