URGENT! Sent LTC to a BTC address

[Bogoos123]

I fucked up. I need help ASAP. Withdrew 120 LTC from Binance, went to get an address from GDAX and chose and copied BTC wallet deposit address by accident. The transaction processed for a while, I made a support ticket both to Binance and GDAX. Apparently the BTC address I sent the Litecoins to is actually a valid LTC address. The transaction is now complete and on Litecoin explorer it shows that the coins have been received. The address has never had any prior inputs or outputs. I am going to die, seriously. Any thoughts on whether GDAX will be able to fix this problem? They responded to my support ticket with this:

”Thank you for reaching out to GDAX Support.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of cryptocurrency protocols, it’s not possible to cancel or reverse a cryptocurrency send/withdrawal to an address after it has been initiated. I apologize we cannot be of further assistance with this.”

I read online about similar cases where the exchange had fixed this issue for them for a fee. I’m all cool about paying a fee as long as this gets fixed. It’s not about reversing or cancelling a TX, GDAX just needs to make a new TX to reimburse me my LTC. Please help!

[ranochigo]

GDAX probably misunderstood your message. If you've withdrawn the coins from Binance, Binance should be the one saying they can't reverse the transaction since they were the sender. GDAX should be the party that is able to fix this problem since they have the private keys to the P2SH Bitcoin address.

GDAX can use their private key to retrieve the LTC. Pester them more.

[Bogoos123]

Exactly. I’m not too tech-savy but I understand this much. I’m waiting on their response. Any thoughts what I can do if they just say they won’t/can’t do anything? I’m just torn, killing myself over this.

Edit: and yes I contacted Binance as well, they told me to contact Gdax urgently, which I did.

[bob123]

Technically it is definetely possible to recover your LTC.
But without owning the private key (which you obviously don't because the address does belong to GDAX) you can't do this yourself.

The support of GDAX are the only ones who can help you in this case.

As ranochigo said, i also think they missunderstood your support ticket.
Its probably not the first time they recovered wrongly send coins.

Just ask them again and explain that you have sent LTC to their BTC address.

Any thoughts what I can do if they just say they won’t/can’t do anything? I’m just torn, killing myself over this.

Unfortunately, if they don't want to help you.. you are out of luck.
It is all up to them whether they are going to help you or not.

[Bogoos123]

The BTC deposit address I got from GDAX started with a 3. I plugged it into withdraw LTC on Binance. The same exact address exists both as a BTC and LTC address. Also, given that the BTC address is owned by GDAX, can we assume that the LTC address is as well?

[Totscha]

The BTC deposit address I got from GDAX started with a 3. I plugged it into withdraw LTC on Binance. The same exact address exists both as a BTC and LTC address. Also, given that the BTC address is owned by GDAX, can we assume that the LTC address is as well?

Yes, they can use the private key of the BTC address to access your LTC.

This is big money. Be insistent, yet polite. It's the best way to get things done.

Admit it was your mistake and that you are willing to pay a small fee for their effort. You probably are, right?

[Bogoos123]

Yes, definitely. I pointed out several times in my response that I'm comfortable with them charging a fee that they determine to be reasonable in order to correct this matter. And absolutely, this happened because of my carelessness.

[DannyHamilton]

The BTC deposit address I got from GDAX started with a 3. I plugged it into withdraw LTC on Binance. The same exact address exists both as a BTC and LTC address. Also, given that the BTC address is owned by GDAX, can we assume that the LTC address is as well?

At a technical level, this is something that GDAX has the necessary tools and information to recover for you.

However, as a business, this is something that GDAX has intentionally made it very difficult to accomplish for you.

In order to recover these funds, someone at GDAX will need access to the private key associated with the BTC address.  They will then need to take the LTC funds that are accessible with that key and send them somewhere for you.

Think about what that means for a moment.

In order to guarantee security of your funds, GDAX has intentionally made it very difficult for any individual in their company to access any of the private keys.  That way, individuals in the company don't need to be trusted not to steal their customer's funds.  You are asking them to break their own security model.  Whomever accesses the private key for you would be able to access other private keys as well, and theoretically could steal funds. As such, they will almost certainly need a complicated process with redundant checks-and-balances involving multiple levels of authorization.  The typical GDAX support person isn't going to be able to do this for you.  He's going to need to recognize what the situation is and escalate it to the appropriate level within the company to address the problem for you.  I'd expect this to take a while, and to incur some costs (they're not going to want to set a precedent of doing all this work every time some user sends $0.10 of crypto to the wrong address).  Note that every time they do this, they are effectively creating a temporary hole in their own security.  If it was fast and easy, then malicious users would frequently make such "mistakes" in the hopes of finding a way to take advantage of the security hole.

[Bogoos123]

This is their response:

”Hi there,


Unfortunately, due to the technical nature of most digital currency networks, it is impossible for us to reverse this payment and we are unable to provide any mediation with this matter. It is important to be careful, and make sure that you are sure the wallet addresses you send to are compatible.


I am very sorry for this, I wish there were a way to reverse the funds once they are on the blockchain.”

Can I escalate this matter further?

[DannyHamilton]

This is their response:

”Hi there,


Unfortunately, due to the technical nature of most digital currency networks, it is impossible for us to reverse this payment and we are unable to provide any mediation with this matter. It is important to be careful, and make sure that you are sure the wallet addresses you send to are compatible.


I am very sorry for this, I wish there were a way to reverse the funds once they are on the blockchain.”

Can I escalate this matter further?

Somehow, they seem to think you are asking to have a transaction reversed?

I would avoid using the words "reversed" or "refunded" or "cancelled" in any communication with them.

You need to be certain that they understand the following:

• You are a GDAX customer.
• You sent LTC to GDAX.
• The transaction is confirmed.
• Those LTC did not show up in your GDAX account.

Once they understand those four things, then you can explain that the GDAX address that you send the LTC to was your GDAX BTC deposit address.

You don't need any transactions reversed.  You just need your GDAX LTC account credited with the LTC that you sent to GDAX.

[Bogoos123]

I made that clear to them. So is my money lost forever? This was their final response just now:

”Hi there,


This is Henry from the GDAX escalation team.


The security and integrity of our private keys is of the utmost importance to us. As a result, the specific private keys associated with an address are not available to any single person. Due to the inherent security risks involved with accessing specific private keys, it is not possible for our support team to recover funds sent to a Coinbase wallet in this way.


I understand that this is extremely frustrating, but the unfortunate reality is that maintaining and prioritizing the security of our private keys is our top priority, which means we will not be able to return any digital currency accidentally sent to Coinbase-controlled addresses. I apologize, and wish there was something more we could do.
”

[LoyceV]

”
I apologize, and wish there was something more we could do.
”

They may be able to solve this a few months (or years) ahead, if they switch to all new private keys, and "give up" on the old ones.
If they collect all similar requests, they can process them all together at some point. But ultimately, it's up to them.

[HCP]

I apologize, and wish there was something more we could do.

That's a little disingenuous... there IS something more that they could do... they could extract the private key and move the LTC. However, they are making a conscious decision to NOT do this.

OP, you should make a watching wallet with this address... if those LTC EVER move... you need to contact coinbase and demand the coins... as they have obviously gone ahead and done exactly what they have told you they can't won't do.

[DannyHamilton]

If it was a lot of money, I'd be contacting a lawyer.

You sent LTC to them, to an address that they supplied you for funding an account of yours, and they failed to update your account to indicate the receipt of that transaction.

While you did make the mistake of using the BTC deposit address instead of the LTC deposit address, a small mistake like that should not release them from their obligation to their customer.

It seems like they may have some legal obligations here.

[cellard]

If it was a lot of money, I'd be contacting a lawyer.

You sent LTC to them, to an address that they supplied you for funding an account of yours, and they failed to update your account to indicate the receipt of that transaction.

While you did make the mistake of using the BTC deposit address instead of the LTC deposit address, a small mistake like that should not release them from their obligation to their customer.

It seems like they may have some legal obligations here.

Im not sure about that. I doubt there is a standard that says "if someone mistakenly sends money from crypto A to crypto B, you must refund". I guess it comes down to the individual exchange's policy. They have an incentive to act good tho. If they don't, you can use social pressure, namely, create a thread in reddit and expose them, this will make hurry and solve the problem, bad publicity is not good publicity when it comes to an exchange, and in general money related stuff.

[Taras]

”
I apologize, and wish there was something more we could do.
”

They may be able to solve this a few months (or years) ahead, if they switch to all new private keys, and "give up" on the old ones.
If they collect all similar requests, they can process them all together at some point. But ultimately, it's up to them.

At the cost of some liquidity, it could be possible for them (or some other company in a similar situation) to send different litecoins back after verifying that one of their BTC addresses received the LTC - and then waiting for that "giving up" event to reclaim those LTC for themselves, covering the cost.

They wouldn't earn any interest on them, or be able to touch them until switching the keys, but it might look good to the public, and save some customers from terrible circumstances like OP's.

[hugeblack]

I see this user has not logged in since 26 may be hopeless but I see a glimmer of light here.
GDAX is a famous platform, so their reputation will be important for them.
It's a huge amount worth fighting for, raise it up on Reddit and if you're lucky it will be resolved quickly.
Here are these quotations of a similar problem.

"Unfortunately we are unable to recover coins that have been sent to an incorrect address. The support overhead created by doing so is currently unmanageable and this is not something we are able to do. Please be careful in future when depositing coins to ensure they are being sent to the correct coin address. Any questions please get in touch."

Hi depboy, Yours and other tickets have prompted a discussion internally shortly after I answered your first ticket. I did feel uncomfortable, given the amount, telling you it was unrecoverable but this was our policy at the time. I have raised the idea of doing recoveries over a certain value for a fee. Or charging a flat fee for any recovery. Our support lead is away today however they and our business manager have plans to discuss this tomorrow, being August 9th in NZ. I will make sure they are aware of your case and we will pass on any updates as soon as they become available. In the meantime if you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Thanks, Jerry Cryptopia Support

Hi depboy, First up, let me apologize and explain what happened in this case. The secondary wallets we use to recover coins with were re-purposed for the sake of splitting our BTC to BCH and weren't in a state to do recoveries. When we were queried if we could do a coin recovery for BCH, one of our admins said "no, we can't" because our systems to do it were and still are a bit of a train wreck; Jerry, god bless his soul it wasn't his fault, took this as a hard no, rather than a "come back in a while" and responded to you in kind. The template you received was one we send to people that ask us to recover coins where there is absolutely no economic sense to do so (aka spending 15 mins to recover coins worth 10 cents). Secondly, the rock and the hard place being that it's going to be a few days to recover your coins, and we're not gonna start until next week (yay growth?) because we're busy, but I do accept us as a company are responsible for our internal miscommunication that caused this drama. I don't want to put your through the drama of updating a support ticket every day to see if today's the day we found time to sort this out for you. As we know the coins are completely recoverable, and I really don't want to set a precedent for this, but I'll make an exception - I've used our user transfer system to send you 25.57385629 BCH, and changed your recovery request to credit them to me instead. This means that you won't be out of pocket until we can be bothered recovering them, and if we take a month to recover them that becomes a me problem instead of a you problem. Sorry again for the dramas, I hope you enjoy your time on Cryptopia. If you have any questions, queries or feedback feel free to get in touch with us. Cheers, SeriousFace The Cryptopia Team

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/6s49ql/psa_careful_when_sending_bccbch_to_an_exchange/

[Bogoos123]

I made a Reddit account but I can’t post anywhere because it says I need to have 200-300 karma and be active. The only way to get karma is by other people upvoting your posts so I fail to understand how I will ever be able to gather the karma if I can’t post anywhere.

[saffacoin]

I made a Reddit account but I can’t post anywhere because it says I need to have 200-300 karma and be active. The only way to get karma is by other people upvoting your posts so I fail to understand how I will ever be able to gather the karma if I can’t post anywhere.

I have been victim of that problem as well. You are just going to have to be patient and post a few things, comment here and there it does not take that long to build up enough karma.

[Taras]

I made a Reddit account but I can’t post anywhere because it says I need to have 200-300 karma and be active. The only way to get karma is by other people upvoting your posts so I fail to understand how I will ever be able to gather the karma if I can’t post anywhere.

That's a restriction on the subreddit. You may have to make posts to other subreddits that you might not really care about before you will be allowed to post in that one.