An unknown crypto user accidentally pays over 34 Ethereum (ETH) in gas fees to transfer less than 1 ETH.
The transaction was indexed by popular crypto sleuth DeFiac yesterday in an X post. According to data accompanying the tweet, the unknown user splashed 34.62 ETH in gas fees to move a paltry sum of 0.87 ETH ($2,324).
At press time, the value of the 34.62 ETH coins has surged to $92,504 from their initial worth of $90,000. Notably, data from Etherscan shows that the transaction occurred at 09:26 PM (UTC) on August 11.
For context, the average Ethereum gas fee was priced between 2 and 4 gwei earlier today. This implies that transactions on the Ethereum network should not exceed $5.
However, the anonymous user paid a massive $92,504 in gas fees for the transaction, representing an overpayment of 1,849,980%.
Other Transaction-Related Mistake
Meanwhile, similar errors have occurred in the past, with The Crypto Basic reporting a handful of such costly mistakes. For instance, during the 2021 NFT craze, a crypto user spent 22.5 ETH, worth $70,000 at the time, to purchase a TIME Magazine NFT.
Over a year later, another unknown user paid 121.56 ETH (worth $157,764) in gas fees for a transfer of 183 ETH ($237,502).
Besides retail investors, crypto-related companies have also made mistakes relating to funds transfers. In August 2022, the Crypto.com exchange mistakenly transferred AUD$10.5 million ($6.7 million) to a Melbourne user instead of an AUD$100 refund.
This type of mistake is common in the crypto space. Hence, users are always advised to double-check the details of each transaction before sending funds.
A Possible Money Laundering?
Also, the incident may not be a mistake but a complex money laundering attempt. In such a rare case, the user would need the cooperation of the Ethereum validator to manipulate the transaction details.
Popular crypto staking platform Northstake called attention to this illicit activity via a report last year. The report pointed out that illegal activity within three staking protocols on the Ethereum mainnet stood at between 0.46% and 1.56%.