Crypto Exchange Bitfinex Paid $23.6M In Transaction Fees To Send $100K USDT On Ethereum

A crypto exchange broke the record for the most expensive transaction on the Ethereum ETH/USD blockchain by spending $23.6 million to send just $100,000 worth of Tether USDT/USD.

What Happened: In what appears to be an unfortunate error, popular crypto exchange Bitfinex has spent over 7,676 ETH worth $23.6 million to send $100,000 in USDT using Ethereum.

New record cost of transaction on @ethereum: $23.6M (7,676 ETH). $100k USDT has been moved from @bitfinex to @deversifi with a record breaking cost of tx.https://t.co/o58H9jV6yP pic.twitter.com/D9iuCldR4Q

— ICO Analytics (@ICO_Analytics) September 27, 2021

https://t.co/qIIgtc7iRO

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) September 27, 2021

Without elaborating on the details of the transaction, Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino pointed users to a Twitter status update from DeversiFi – a non-custodial exchange – that said the transaction took place on its platform.

“DeversiFi is currently investigating the cause to determine how this occurred and will keep you updated. No customer funds on DeversiFi are at risk and this is an internal issue for DeversiFi to resolve. Operations are unaffected,” said DeversiFi.

DeversiFi is a platform that spun off from Bitfinex in 2019 and claims to offer users access to DeFi without paying gas fees.

Interestingly, the recipient of the fees was an Ethereum miner that ranks in the top 10 miners by blocks mined over the last week.

According to pseudonymous crypto trader Hsaka, the miner in question appeared to be unaware of his sizeable block reward at the time of writing, based on his recent transfer activity.

Would not discount him returning a portion of the fees (assuming he's alerted to the events that have transpired)

— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) September 27, 2021

Price Action: At press time, Ethereum was trading at $2,970, falling by 3.46% over the last 24 hours.