Paxos clarifies the account responsible
Paxos, the well-known issuer of stablecoins and crypto brokerage firm, has confirmed that it was responsible for the mistaken $500,000 Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees on September 10th. The company assures end users that their funds are safe and unaffected.
Speculation about PayPal's involvement
Speculation arose on Twitter about PayPal's involvement in the transaction, as an analytics platform identified a related wallet account as belonging to PayPal. However, Paxos representative clarified that the error was theirs, taking full responsibility.
The discovery and details of the transaction
The mistaken transaction was discovered shortly after it occurred, with blockchain data revealing that the sender paid exorbitant fees of over $515,000 to send less than $2,000 worth of BTC. The sending account, which had made over 60,000 transactions, raised suspicions about faulty software. The block containing the transaction was confirmed by Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool.
Paxos attempts to recoup the funds
Paxos has been in contact with the miner to recoup the lost funds. The mining pool had offered to return the funds if a claim was made within three days, after which the fees would be distributed to the pool's contributors.
Paxos sets the record straight
Before Paxos made its statement, some believed that PayPal was responsible for the transaction. However, Bitcoin enthusiast Mononaut's analysis found evidence pointing to Paxos, and Paxos later confirmed this in their statement.
A costly mistake in the crypto world
Mistaken high-value transactions are not uncommon in the crypto world. In 2019, an Ethereum user lost over $300,000 due to a similar error. However, mining pools were generous enough to return a portion of the lost funds in some cases.
Paxos seeks to recover the lost funds
Paxos has reached out to the mining company responsible for confirming the transaction in an attempt to recover the lost funds.
