Costly Mistake Results in a Record-Breaking $3 Million Bitcoin Transaction Fee

An anonymous Bitcoin sender achieved a historical record on Thursday, November 23, after paying $3 million in transaction fees to transfer 139.42 BTC, which is equal to $5.1 million. The sender only managed to transfer 55.77 BTC, and the remaining 83.64 BTC was charged as a transaction fee, effectively paying more than the transfer amount.

According to data from Bitinfocharts, miner AntPool processed the transfer in block 818087. However, it’s more than likely that this record-breaking fee results from a mistake on the sender’s part. Although it’s true that in peak periods on the Bitcoin network, when multiple transactions are processed, the prices can rise, but not to the level seen yesterday, and never more than the sent amount.

This incident is not the first case of a Bitcoin owner overpaying for a transaction. Another case reported in September resulted in a more modest fee of $500,000 for a transfer of $2,000. In that instance, the miner F2Pool was willing to refund the overpaid amount. Transaction fees have increased in recent months, but overpaying by 120,528 times has not been seen until now. The standard transfer cost on the Bitcoin network in November is $14.