According to ChainCatcher news, the Bitcoin mining pool with the highest total hashrate, Foundry USA Pool, has refunded an accidentally paid Bitcoin transaction fee worth around $777,000 (8.18 BTC).
On December 19, Foundry USA Pool mined Bitcoin block 875475, which included a transaction with a fee of 8.18 BTC, 91,127 times higher than the necessary fee.
On Friday, Foundry posted on social media that they had contacted the sender who "accidentally" paid the fee. The mining pool confirmed that it had "carefully considered" and refunded the transaction fee to the sender, otherwise, the fee would have been distributed to the mining clients contributing hashrate to the Foundry pool.
"Please note that this decision was made after careful consideration, and we will continue to handle such cases on a case-by-case basis," Foundry added.
This is not the first time a large Bitcoin mining pool has refunded an abnormally high Bitcoin transaction fee due to an accident. In November 2023, Antpool refunded a transaction fee of 83.6 BTC, worth $3.1 million at the time.
Currently, Foundry USA Pool's hashrate reaches around 280 EH/s, nearly double that of its closest competitor, Antpool.
