A Bitcoin user made a costly mistake on April 8, 2025, by accidentally paying nearly 0.75 BTC (equivalent to around $60,000) in transaction fees due to an error made in panic. The user attempted to adjust an unconfirmed transaction using the replace-by-fee (RBF) feature but ended up setting the fee too high in their haste to ensure the transaction was processed on time.
The mistaken second RBF transaction involved sending out a total of 0.75 BTC, comprising 0.48 Bitcoin (approximately $37,770) and 0.2 BTC as change (valued at $16,357). Anmol Jain, the vice president of investigations at AMLBot, suggested that the fee overpayment likely resulted from an input error when setting the transaction fee. It is believed that the user intended to set the fee at 30.5692 satoshis but mistakenly entered 305,692 satoshis, causing the wallet to calculate a significantly higher fee.
The situation may have been exacerbated by the user's failure to adjust the change address correctly, resulting in almost 0.75 BTC being sent as part of the fee. It is possible that the user misunderstood how Bitcoin wallets handle fees, leading to an accidental overcorrection when attempting to expedite the transaction confirmation by increasing the fee.
The replace-by-fee (RBF) feature in Bitcoin, controversial for its ability to increase transaction fees for unconfirmed transactions to incentivize miners for inclusion in a block, has faced criticism for its potential to facilitate double-spending. Bitcoin Cash, for instance, removed RBF from its network, emphasizing the finality and security of unconfirmed transactions. While some Bitcoin developers advocate for RBF to expedite transaction processing, its implementation can pose challenges and result in costly errors if users lack a thorough understanding of fee setting practices.
As a consequence, the user's second transaction is unlikely to be confirmed due to the higher-fee transaction taking precedence, implying that the initial and interim transactions may remain unprocessed. This incident underscores the risks associated with RBF and emphasizes the significance of diligent transaction oversight in the dynamic realm of cryptocurrency.