Ethereum is one of the top blockchains in the crypto space, but its huge transaction fees have prompted many to flee to alternative networks
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has been in the news for a few negative reasons in recent years, namely because of its affiliate with USDT issuer Tether. However, this time the exchange is in the news for carrying out an absurd transaction.
A wallet belonging to the crypto exchange paid $ 23,7 million in transaction fees on the Ethereum network. The surprising aspect of the transaction was that this enormous transaction fee was used to move only $ 100,000 into the USDT stablecoin.
The transaction took place on DeversiFi, a non-custodial exchange whose founders worked for Bitfinex. DeversiFi is also known for providing access to decentralized financial protocols (DeFi). The transaction was conducted from one of Bitfinex’s major wallets and resulted in transaction fees of over $ 23 million.
A spokesperson for DeversiFi stated that the deposit transaction was made via a hardware wallet from DeversiFi’s main user interface on September 27 at 11:10 UTC. The spokesman added that the gas fee for the amount in question was extremely high.
DeversiFi said it is investigating the cause to find out how this error occurred. However, it assured its users that their funds were not at risk and that it was an internal problem that DeversiFi had to solve. In addition, the operation of DeversiFi and Bitfinex was not affected.
The bulk of the transaction fees, about $ 22,1 million worth of ETH, was returned to the Bitfinex wallet this morning at the price of $ 33,74.
The Ethereum network has become notorious for its high gas fees. The lack of scalability of the network has led to bottlenecks at certain times. The congestion usually leads to unusually high transaction fees for the users of the network.
Due to Ethereum’s lack of scalability and high gas fees, developers and users often consider other programmable blockchains, including Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Tezos and others. Solana and Cardano have experienced high usage in recent months mainly due to their fast transaction time and relatively low fees.