Key Takeaways
- •A Bitcoin user mistakenly paid a $105,000 fee for a minor transaction.
- •The incident highlights the risks associated with manual fee input in cryptocurrency transactions.
- •While not causing systemic impact, the event prompts discussions on improving wallet safeguards.
A Bitcoin user inadvertently paid over $105,000 in transaction fees to send just $10 worth of BTC on November 11, 2025, sparking discussions across the crypto community.
The incident highlights potential risks in manual fee settings on blockchain transactions, igniting calls for improved wallet usability and safeguards against such costly errors.
A Bitcoin user mistakenly paid over $105,000 in transaction fees to transfer merely $10 in BTC. This severe error occurred on November 11, 2025, and immediately caught attention within the crypto community.
The sender, a retail user, sent 0.00010036 BTC to a Kraken wallet, mistakenly selecting a fee nearly equivalent to one Bitcoin. The recipient of the excessive fee was the mining pool MARA Pool, which successfully mined the block.
Risks of Manual Fee Settings
Such incidents highlight the risks associated with manual fee entries in cryptocurrency transactions. Industry leaders noted that many wallets allow setting arbitrary fees, leading to potential costly mistakes. As Scott Norris, CEO of Optiminer, put it:
“It’s not that difficult — many wallets allow setting arbitrary values. It’s hard to say whether it was an accident or intentional.”
This event has led experts and developers to advocate for improved wallet designs featuring safeguards against massive fee errors. Although no regulatory actions are expected, discussions on future protective measures have emerged.
Precedent and User Education
Previous similar cases include a $510,000 fee for a small Bitcoin transfer in 2023. While these occurrences emphasize the need for caution, they remain isolated, impacting only individual users rather than broader markets.
Scott Norris and Nick Hansen commented on the non-standard nature of such transactions. As history shows, manual input errors are not unprecedented, but they underline the necessity for stringent wallet security features and user education.