The Bitcoin user accidentally sent $ 60,000 fees - do not make the same mistake

Key results

Non -compliance with units of fees led to an accidental overpayment worth over USD 60,000 during a replacement transaction.
The user confused SAT/VB (byte fee) with complete Satoshis, which leads to an extreme overpayment.
RBF replaces the transaction with a version with higher celebrities, and CPFP adds a up-to-date transaction to augment the original; Everyone has different cases of employ and risk.
Operate trusted portfolios, check the fee units twice and let the wallet offer optimal fees. Avoid panic, be up to date and always verify transactions before reaching “Send”.

Around 00:30 UTC on April 8, 2025. The Bitcoin user tried to speed up the ongoing transaction using the replacement – Fee (RBF). But instead of a modest lump, their wallet incorrectly spent 0.75 Bitcoin (BTC), about 60,000–70,000 USD, only on fees.

How is something like this? And more importantly, how can you make sure you haven’t happened?

Let’s break it down.

Why does Bitcoin finally pay $ 60,000?

The user wanted to send 0.48 BTC (about USD 37,770 at that time) using the RBF Bitcoin function. This function allows you to re -issue transactions with a higher fee if the original gets stuck in Mempool (waiting area of unconfirmed transactions). In this case, something went wrong, very bad.

Timeline:

First transaction: Sent with a standard fee, not enough to confirm quickly.
The first attempt in RBF: Doubled the fee and changed the recipient’s address (output).
Second attempt in RBF: A immense insufficient transaction output has been added (UTXO), about 0.75 BTC, but I forgot to redirect the change back to my own address.

Result? This 0.75 BTC was treated as a fee and sent to miners.

Anmol Jain, vice president for research at the Amlbot cryptocurrency company, told CointeLgraph that the user probably started with the “default or conservative” transaction fee, which is not unusual. Then a mistake appeared: misleading, how the fee was measured.

Many bitcoin wallets allow you to set fees in one of two ways:

Total fee in Satoshis (the smallest bitcoin unit, like dollar centuries)
Virtual byte fee (SAT/VB), which measures how “heavy” a transaction is in terms of data

Here something went wrong, according to Jain:

“The system reads it as a total SAT fee, which is definitely too low, so users’ types of 305000 think that it means 30.5 sat/vb, and the wallet actually uses 305,000 sat/vb, which is crazy.”

Simply put, the user could see the warning that their fee, only 30 sat, was too low for the transaction to be quickly processed. Trying to fix it, they could enroll on 305,000, thinking that it meant “30.5 satuns per byte”.

But instead of moderately adjusting the fee, the wallet assumed that 305,000 sat for a byte, a monstrous fee that broke any standard and caused a loss of over 60,000 USD.

Why does it matter

It emphasizes how little confusion between fees can lead to grave losses, especially when manual quick introduction of numbers or using advanced portfolio settings without fully understanding them.

So if you ever adapt bitcoin fees, check the device twice. Regardless of whether it is “Total Sats” or “Sats on the byte”, it makes a world of difference, as this steep mistake proves.

Do you know? In September 2023, the user paid a fee of USD 500,000 for a single BTC transaction. It turned out that Paxos, a cryptographic infrastructure company.

Replace-by-Fee (RBF): What is it?

Bitcoin transactions are not final until they are added to the block. If the transaction is stuck, you can employ RBF to pay them again to encourage miners to raise faster.

He was originally proposed by the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, and later formalized as “Opt-in RBF” by the developer Peter Todd, According to to the Bitgo developer portal.

How it works:

You turn on RBF when sending an original transaction.
If the transaction remains unconfirmed, you can create a deputy for a higher fee.
Miners will probably choose a version about higher celebrities, because they are financially encouraged to do so.

But here is the catch: if you spoil the input or outputs, especially the address of the change, maybe it Cost You are steep.

In particular, RBF differs from a child-Pays-For-Roader (CPFP) in that RBF replaces the original unconfirmed transaction with a higher form and only the sender can initiate it. In contrast to this, CPFP adds a child transaction of a high conviction to augment the parent’s confirmation and can be initiated by the sender or recipient.

Replace after Fee (RBF) vs. Child-Patels-For-Roader (CPFP)

Why was the Bitcoin transaction fee so high?

Several theories for what caused an absurd fee in this case:

Confusion in relation to units of fees: The fee probably increased due to the misunderstanding of the fees. Instead of setting a reasonable rate to a byte, the user could accidentally introduce high absolute value, causing the wallet to employ an excessively high fee.

Common bitcoin fees units were explained

Automation went wrong: If the portfolio uses automated scripts or has errors in RBF processing, the user’s input can be incorrectly read or, worse, made without appropriate warnings.

Why RBF is controversial

The RBF function caused years of debate in the cryptographic community. Although this is useful for determining clogged transactions, critics such as Mike Hearn (former Bitcoin programmer) he argued On the medium is:

It enables double attacks, especially for personal trade transactions.
It encourages the collusion of Górnik-Frauder.
Adds complexity, increasing the likelihood of user mistakes.
He undermines the last resort because unconfirmed transactions can be replaced.

To solve this problem, for example, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) removed RBF support and says that unconfirmed transactions are final. However, due to how Mempools work, similar substitutes similar to RBF can still happen, even on BCH.

Do you know? In November 2023, the transaction 139 BTC (worth millions) It includes a $ 3.1 million fee.

How to protect yourself against high fees for bitcoin transactions

You don’t have to be afraid of RBF, but you have to respect it. Here are some tips to avoid another failure of viral fees:

Choose a unthreatening Bitcoin wallet with see-through fees: Choose reputable Bitcoin wallets that clearly display and explain the types of fees.
Understand the bitcoin fee units before sending: Discover the difference between SAT/VB (satoshis on a virtual byte) and a complete Satoshis to avoid accidental paying.
Always check the transaction twice before confirmation: Check the recipient’s address, the amount of fees and the address of the change to make sure that no funds are incorrectly used as fees for Górniczka.
Let the wallet suggest a fee, especially if you are up-to-date: Most wallets offer animated recommendations for charges based on network congestion, so employ them instead of introducing values manually.
First test with a tiny bitcoin transaction: Send a low -value test transaction to confirm that everything is set correctly before sending a significant amount.
Monitor fees for the Bitcoin network in real time: Operate websites such as MEMPOOL.SPACE to check the current fees and choose the best time to send transactions.
Avoid panic over snail-paced confirmations: Bitcoin transactions may take some time. Wait before the withdrawal or replacement of the transaction again, unless you are sure it is necessary.
Stay up to date with updates and errors in the wallet: Follow the portfolio provider to obtain an update, because software or interface changes can affect the method of calculating or displaying fees.

If you skip the above precautions, you can pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars with unnecessary fees, without the possibility of regaining the loss. As for Bitcoin, one tiny mistake can become a costly lesson.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Each investment and commercial movement involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making decisions.