In a surprising twist of events, Paxos has come forward to take the blame for the $500,000 Bitcoin fee payment after PayPal was accused of being the party responsible for the exorbitant fee transfer.
Paxos Comes Forward As Guilty Party
Paxos, a New York-based blockchain infrastructure company and the issuer of PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Pax Dollar (USDP), recently admitted responsibility for a substantial $510,000 Bitcoin fee payment, the highest fee ever paid in US dollars for a single Bitcoin transaction.
The story began when several blockchain sleuths noticed the abnormally high Bitcoin network transaction fee of 19.89 BTC attached to a relatively small Bitcoin transfer of 0.074 BTC. Usually, BTC network fees range from $1-$5 and sometimes $50 when network activities are high, so the fee instantly piqued interest.
An analysis by an X (formerly Twitter) user, Mononautical claimed that the entity behind the overly paid Bitcoin fee transaction was PayPal because the address behind the transaction was similar to one tagged as PayPal on OXT, a mobile block explorer for Bitcoin. In light of these rumors, Paxos has come forward to debunk the statement, clarifying that it was indeed an error on their part.
Paxos has stated that the substantial BTC fee was caused by a bug error on the Bitcoin transfer. However, the blockchain infrastructure company has begun making plans to reclaim the lost funds from BTC miners involved in the transfer.
“Paxos overpaid the BTC network fee on Sept. 10, 2023. This only impacted Paxos’ corporate operations. Paxos clients and end users have not been affected and all customer funds are safe,” the blockchain service provider said.
Bitcoin Miners Contemplate Refund
Presently, Bitcoin miners are contemplating refunding the significant Bitcoin network fee paid by Paxos for a 0.074 BTC transfer. The mining company involved in the transfer was Stakefish, a leading validator for proof of stake blockchains.
The CEO and Founder of Stakefish, Chun Wang announced in a post on X that the individual behind the overly paid BTC fee transaction should come forward and reclaim their funds within three days.
Following the announcement, a claim was made after three days, however, Wang has been uncertain about releasing the Bitcoin fee funds. He stated that he felt contrite about giving consent to the reimbursement and asked if he should split the funds between miners and Paxos.
A few members of the crypto community had suggested distributing the funds to miners, while others proposed splitting the funds equally between Paxos and miners. All things considered, the loss of the Bitcoin fee funds has been a huge blow to Paxos, raising concerns about the firm’s security.
The crypto infrastructure provider has also been on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) radar, for allegedly infringing several investor protection laws in issuing the BUSD stablecoin. Paxos also faces significant regulatory challenges in several regions including Canada and New York.
