Bitcoin mining pool Foundry refunds 8.18 BTC transaction fee paid “accidentally” by a sender

Foundry USA Pool, the largest Bitcoin mining pool by total hashrate, has refunded an unintentional payment of a Bitcoin transaction fee worth approximately $777,000 (8.18 BTC). On December 19, Foundry USA Pool mined Bitcoin block 875475, which included a transaction in which the sender attached a fee of 8.18 BTC, 91,127 times higher than necessary. In a social media post on Friday, Foundry said it had contacted the sender who had “inadvertently” paid the fee. The pool confirmed that it refunded the transaction fee to the sender “after careful consideration,” as the fee would otherwise have been distributed to 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 unusually high Bitcoin transaction fee due to an unexpected event. In November 2023, Antpool refunded a transaction fee of 83.6 BTC, which was worth $3.1 million at the time. Currently, Foundry USA Pool has a hashrate of about 280 EH/s, almost twice that of its closest competitor Antpool.