Crypto substitution Bitfinex completed a highly consequential transaction on Sept. 27 when sending $100,000 of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) to the layer-2 subsidiary platform DeversiFi. For reasons unknown, the substitution paid 7,626 ETH, equivalent to $23.vii million, mark quite possibly the largest gas fee ever recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.

Co-ordinate to blockchain information from EtherScan, the deposit transaction was initiated at 11:x UTC this morning time from Bitfinex'due south 2d-largest wallet, via a second address, to the wallet of DeversiFi. The transaction carried an "erroneously loftier gas fee", even though DeversiFi promotes a service to "avoid gas costs and frustration, saving you fourth dimension and money with every trade or swap."

To put the enormity of this fee into context, consider the fact that the average transaction fee on the Ethereum blockchain currently stands at 0.013 ETH, or $39.96. In addition to this, two weeks ago, $2 billion of BTC was transferred betwixt unknown wallets for an infinitesimal fee of $0.78.

DeversiFi revealed that they take launched investigative procedures to decide the well-nigh probable cause of the matter, while also adding that: "No customer funds on DeversiFi are at chance and this is an internal result for DeversiFi to resolve", as well as that "operations are unaffected."

In response, Bitfinex tweeted that: "In transactions such as these, the fees are shouldered by third party integrations with Bitfinex," suggesting that the substitution will non directly conduct the burden of the fee.

In June 2022, another gas fee mystery occurred with numerical similarities to the Bitfinex case when 3 small to medium transactions registered seismic costs, with 1 0.55 ETH transfer conveying $2.6 million in fees.

Related: Bitfinex launches the first L2 bridge from CeFi to DeFi

At the fourth dimension, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his agreement with the human-fault narrative, adding that: "I'yard expecting EIP-1559 to profoundly reduce the charge per unit of things like this happening by reducing the need for users to endeavor to set fees manually."

Yet, experts in the field circulated theories of bribery, fraudulent activity and fifty-fifty money laundering after the final of the iii transactions was confirmed as a "malicious attack" when the wallet owner reached out to the mining pool that facilitated the transaction. The owner in this case later received 90% of the lost funds.

In a good-willed act of crypto kindness, the block miner who mistakenly fortuned from the transaction event has returned the 7626 ETH to Bitfinex. DeversiFi also promised a mail mortem analysis to be published shortly.