Crypto Exchange Pays $24 Million In Transaction Fees For $100,000

While erratic and pricey fees have been a common gripe in that world, the $24 million price tag appeared to be a mistake

Bitfinex, one of the crypto world's most controversial exchanges, paid $23.7 million in transaction fees to deposit $100,000 on the blockchain in what appears to be a fat-finger trade for the history books. 

Bitfinex was moving that amount in Tether, the stablecoin pegged to the dollar, to the decentralized exchange DeversiFi at 7:10 a.m. New York time Monday, records on blockchain tracker Etherscan show.

Anyone transacting on the Ethereum blockchain pays miners what is known as gas fees in exchange for incorporating their trades onto the digital ledger - an amount that can vary depending on supply and demand for computing power at any time. While erratic and pricey fees have been a common gripe in that world amid this year's decentralised-finance boom, the $24 million price tag appeared to be a mistake, with DeversiFi calling it “erroneously high” in a tweet. 

While fat-finger errors have also been known to spark inexplicably sharp swings in traditional markets, they are uniquely problematic in the crypto world since blockchain transactions are supposedly irreversible.