AntPool Refunds Record $3.1 Million Bitcoin Transaction Fees After Costly User Error

Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool AntPool said it would refund 83 BTC, worth more than $3 million, paid by an unknown user in gas fees for transactions, according to a statement on November 30.

November 23, CryptoSlate Insight reported that on BTC block 818,087 mined by AntPool, fees exceeded 85 Bitcoin. Reports later revealed that one user accidentally paid 83.6 BTC for a single transaction, setting a new record for transaction fees on the blockchain network.

In an update, AntPool said its risk control system detected exorbitant fees during transaction processing, causing the pool to be temporarily frozen. The pool urged the rightful owners of the funds to contact them before December 10 to verify their identity.

AntPool wrote:

“ANTPOOL’s risk management system temporarily froze fees when packaging transactions. Please contact us and verify your identity before 00:00 (UTC+8) on December 10, 2023.”

The mining pool asked fund owners to prepare a signing tool, such as Electrum or Bitcoin Core, that would be used to sign “AntPool” messages via the private key of the BTC address from which the transaction was sent.

Fund owners must send the signed text to the mining pool’s support email address.

Last week, a claimant identified as 83_5BTC appeared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

83_5BTC claims ownership of the wallet, which incurred significant transaction fees as follows:

“I created a new cold wallet and transferred 139BTC, which was immediately transferred to another wallet. “You can imagine that someone was running a script on that wallet and there was some strange fee calculation in the script.”

Concerns have been raised about the authenticity of the claims as wallets may be damaged. However, the claimant signed a message proving that the funds belonged to him.

Prominent figures within the community, including Mempool’s anonymous developer Mononaut, have been able to independently verify this claim.