Record-High Bitcoin Transaction Fee: A Historic $3.13 Million Payment

Unveiling the story of Bitcoin's most expensive transaction fee ever: A colossal $3.13 million.

Dive into an analysis of how this historic event unfolded, its comparison to past records, and the crucial lessons for cryptocurrency users.

Breaking Down the Historic Bitcoin Transaction on November 23, 2023

On November 23, 2023, a Bitcoin (BTC) on-chain transaction set a new record for the highest transaction fee in Bitcoin's history, with a staggering 3.13 million dollars' worth of BTC paid.

This transaction involved transferring approximately 139 BTC to another wallet. However, a transaction fee of about 83 BTC was paid, meaning only about 55 BTC actually reached the target wallet.

Previously, the highest number of BTC paid as a transaction fee was during a transaction on April 26, 2016, where approximately 291 BTC were paid.

However, at the time, this amounted to only 129,602 dollars, making the recent 3.13 million dollar fee the highest in terms of dollar value.

Exploring the Reasons Behind the Exorbitant Transaction Fee

The reason for the high fee in this recent transaction is speculated to be either a mistake by the sender in setting the fee or a combination of the sender's lack of knowledge and the "Replace-by-Fee" (RBF) node policy.

Mononaut (@mononautical), a prominent user, suggests that the sender might have panicked and mistakenly thought they could cancel the transaction with RBF.

Records show that in the final exchange, the fee was increased by 20%, adding an additional 12.54824636 BTC, indicating that the sender may have repeatedly altered the fee in an attempt to cancel the transaction.

The Enormous Transaction Fee Becomes a Mining Reward

The substantial transaction fee has been paid as a reward to the "miner" responsible for processing the Bitcoin transaction, with the mining pool "Antpool" reporting that they mined this particular block.

While high transaction fees can expedite the processing of on-chain BTC transfers, typical fees are usually just a few thousand yen, highlighting the extraordinary nature of this fee.

In contrast, when "Paxos," a stablecoin issuing company, mistakenly paid over 500,000 dollars in fees, the mining pool "F2Pool" returned the transaction fee.

However, "Antpool" has not yet commented on this incident, and the details of the sender remain unclear, leaving it uncertain whether this massive fee will be refunded.

This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of verifying transaction details, as errors like incorrect transaction fee settings or misentered addresses are periodically reported in cryptocurrency transactions.