Ethereum Miner Returns USD 22M in Mistaken Fees, Keeps ETH 50

The miner of the block which carried a massive amount of ethereum (ETH) paid incorrectly as a transaction fee – has decided to return (nearly) all the funds.

Etherscan shows the address, which currently holds some ETH 20, has sent to Bitfinex ETH 7,385 in one transaction, as well as ETH 241 in two other transactions, making it ETH 7,626 in total. Per the current price of ETH, this is USD 22m.

As reported yesterday, crypto exchange Bitfinex paid USD 23.5m (ETH 7,676.61) in transaction fees for a transfer of close to USD 100,000 in tether (USDT) via the Ethereum network.

This would suggest that the miner decided to keep ETH 50 (USD 145,056).

Non-custodial exchange DeversiFi, whose wallet was also involved in the transaction, already confirmed the information, adding that customer funds on DeversiFi were not at risk.

Early today they tweeted to thank the miner, stating that there will be a postmortem report available soon as well.

The blockchain is immutable.

But the revolution we are part of is defined by our values as humans.⁰⁰

Thank you to the miner of block 13307440 who we can confirm is returning 7626 ETH that were incorrectly paid today as a tx fee.

A post mortem will follow tomorrow. https://t.co/FqkEZ9DK8P

— rhino.fi (@rhinofi) September 27, 2021

Bitfinex Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, also chimed in, stating: “Kudos to the miner for being proactive and fair. And thanks to Binance for helping in establishing the contact. Funds have been sent back to the source address.”

Ardoino previously assured the community that “No user will be affected whatsoever.”

<3
I'm really excited to see crypto community getting together to solve problems.
We're decentralized but we're still people and peers. https://t.co/hNhTpIGboK

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖🍐 (@paoloardoino) September 28, 2021

The crypto community is discussing this miner returning the funds and if they’d done the same – under which circumstances, and how much would they decide to keep if any.
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Learn more: 
– Sender of USD 5.3 Million ETH Transactions Reportedly Revealed 
– Friday 13 Strikes: Crypto Exchange Employee Makes USD 82,000 Fee Gaffe 
– Ethereum Users Flock To Arbitrum In Search of Scalability