Somebody Just Paid 656 ETH ($82K) in Fees for a Single Transaction

With the market turmoil and fear sweeping the cryptocurrency market, some strange happenings have been recorded on the blockchain. Ethereum, for example, had a transaction earlier today which left many scratching their heads.

656 ETH in Fees for a Single Transaction?

Ethereum’s network recorded a strange transaction earlier today. A smart contract was created on the network with a fee of 656 ETH. At the time of writing, that is around $82,222 in fees. It’s currently unclear whether this was a mistake or something else is amiss. The large fee was picked up by Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) who brought it to everyone’s attention on Twitter.

Someone wanted to get their Ethereum transaction in the chain reallll bad. $76k USD transaction fee. https://t.co/0BIMo5AQVM

— Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) March 13, 2020

Many are claiming that it was the result of an error with an ETH-related client. Some fingers have been pointed at CoinOne since the transaction was possibly linked to it.

@CoinoneOfficial wallet. Script error? 🙂 pic.twitter.com/i41a5HGBHN

— ₿inghan.auth.eth (@stiucsib86) March 13, 2020

However, some are provocatively claiming that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all. Ethereum plummeted yesterday and shed some 50% of its value in just 24-hours. Given these circumstances, we don’t know the stakes that were at play when this decision was made, as one user explains.

Why accidentally ? You don’t know whether a $10M liquidation is at stake here or not. In this case $75k to save it almost worth it lol. It’s only 0.75% after all

— ethlover (@ethlover2) March 13, 2020

In all, the transaction remains a mystery but is an anomaly during an already surreal day in cryptocurrency markets.

Ethereum’s Price Collapse

Yesterday was a bad day for cryptocurrencies across the board, to put it mildly, but it also exposed some deep issues with Ethereum. For example, there was a common argument that DeFi applications would grow more popular during a coronavirus-induced recession. In fact, the opposite happened.  Ethereum’s top holders also decided to dump on everyone yesterday and “profited big.” On-chain metrics have demonstrated this, disproving the argument that accumulation among top wallets necessarily means bullish momentum. Moreover, Ethereum saw massive spikes in fees across the board yesterday and today. Perhaps this can be linked to the recent transaction on the network of 656 ETH in fees. We should also keep in mind that the PLUS Token scam still holds a large number of ETH which it has yet to sell-off on the market. Some 800,000 ETH is sitting in a wallet. It is currently unclear whether its owner has been apprehended, but the Ponzi scheme’s Bitcoin stash has been dumping consistently on the market for a long time now.