AntPool Agrees to Refund Record $3 Million Bitcoin Fee: Hack or Monumental Mistake?

 In an unprecedented event in the world of cryptocurrencies, AntPool, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, has agreed to refund an extraordinarily high transaction fee of 83 BTC, valued at over $3 million, which marked a record in terms of Bitcoin transaction fees.

This transaction, processed last week, raised eyebrows by paying a fee 120,528 times the normal fee for a transaction of this magnitude.

The incident caused a significant uproar due to the scale of the fee, with AntPool stating that its risk control system temporarily froze the fee when the transaction was processed.

The company has asked the original owner of the funds to verify their identity by December 10, 2023.

Verification involves the use of a specific signature using the private key of the transaction source address.

This event is not without controversy for AntPool

A user calling himself “83_5BTC” claimed to be the victim of a hack in which funds were transferred from his newly created wallet.

It was suggested that a malicious script may have caused the loss of 55 BTC immediately after transferring 139 BTC to a new wallet, calling into question the security and handling of the private keys.

Speculation about the possible cause of the hack suggests the vulnerability of a low-entropy wallet, which could have been targeted by multiple attackers.

Rapid rate modification using the replacement rate function (RBF) may have attracted these attackers in competition for funds.

Although the alleged affected owner provided a signature that appeared authentic, there is uncertainty over its legitimacy as it could have been generated by an attacker.

AntPool has not yet provided additional comment on how they will verify the identity of the rightful owner.

This case highlights security challenges in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, underscoring the importance of secure management of private keys and the need for rigorous verification in exceptionally high transaction fee situations like this.