Fund Recovery from Bitfinex - Similar Experiences?

[ninor]

Hi everyone,

I'm seeking information and experiences from anyone who has had similar issues with Bitfinex regarding the recovery of tokens sent to the wrong address/network.

My case began on April 11, 2024, when I mistakenly sent 200k BUSD to my Bitfinex account's ERC-20 address, which was meant for USDT. After reporting the error to Bitfinex support, providing the details and asking if it was possible to recover the funds, on April 12 I was informed that my recovery request was accepted and that the recovery fee would be $15,000. I accepted and paid on the same day.

As of today, the recovery of my funds has not been completed yet. It has been over three months, and the recovery process seems extremely slow and frustrating. I have contacted Bitfinex support several times but have not received any concrete responses or updates on the recovery status. From the beginning, they were always transparent that there is no specific timeframe they can provide, as the resolution involves coordination with senior admins and developers, which may take some time. However, at this point, I am starting to feel very uncomfortable.

I would like to know if any of you have had similar experiences with Bitfinex. How long did it take to resolve the situation? Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the process? Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

[PX-Z]

Did i read it right? $15k fee for the recovery fee? If that's the amount they charge they should prioritize you. I know there are incidents happen to others the same like this but most of them have good news within a month's timeframe. You should pressure them for this. Do you open a thread on their subreddit as well? If not yet, i recommend to do so. Other than that i don't have any info for them to speed up the process aside from waiting and bumping their customer support.

[Potato Chips]

Yeah, you can indeed feel it's the least of their priorities from this help article lol. It'd be difficult to get something out of them before the whole thing is done.

There is no time frame or time limit for any discretionary recovery process to be undertaken by Bitfinex, so please be patient. Please do not contact us; wait to be notified. There are no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate before the process is completed.

However, I find it as a strange stance to make when they have asked for a payment first instead of deducting the fee once recovery is completed. An update shouldn't be too much.

BTW, since successful outcome is not guaranteed as they say, I wonder if you would you get a refund for it? $15K ain't pennies.

If it is decided that a recovery will be tried, Bitfinex will attempt a recovery, but a successful outcome is not and cannot be guaranteed.

Just in case, you're on bitfinex.com right? and/or have been talking through official handles? see: https://www.bitfinex.com/channels/

[avp2306]

Hi everyone,

I'm seeking information and experiences from anyone who has had similar issues with Bitfinex regarding the recovery of tokens sent to the wrong address/network.

My case began on April 11, 2024, when I mistakenly sent 200k BUSD to my Bitfinex account's ERC-20 address, which was meant for USDT. After reporting the error to Bitfinex support, providing the details and asking if it was possible to recover the funds, on April 12 I was informed that my recovery request was accepted and that the recovery fee would be $15,000. I accepted and paid on the same day.

As of today, the recovery of my funds has not been completed yet. It has been over three months, and the recovery process seems extremely slow and frustrating. I have contacted Bitfinex support several times but have not received any concrete responses or updates on the recovery status. From the beginning, they were always transparent that there is no specific timeframe they can provide, as the resolution involves coordination with senior admins and developers, which may take some time. However, at this point, I am starting to feel very uncomfortable.

I would like to know if any of you have had similar experiences with Bitfinex. How long did it take to resolve the situation? Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the process? Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

That's huge, I guess you need to follow up your case with them to know if they forgot to take care your issue since maybe there are lots of work loads need to pay attention and your case has been buried down with other existing cases.

But that span is so long already and they supposed to prioritized with your case since you already paid huge amount of money for recovery process. I believe if they really work with that case already it will not take long months before they successfully recover that lost funds. I do hope they could able to recover your funds since that amount is really huge.

[FinneysTrueVision]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady, but it is their standard procedure based on similar incidents that I could find. Making you wait 3 months is something else which I can’t comprehend. They are practically stealing your $15k. It shouldn’t take this long to recover your BUSD.

Based on the amount you lost, they should escalate the situation and give a timeline for when they can complete the process. They can’t just hold onto your funds indefinitely, after you have already paid what they asked for. That cannot possible be legal.

[Darker45]

There is no time frame or time limit for any discretionary recovery process to be undertaken by Bitfinex, so please be patient. Please do not contact us; wait to be notified. There are no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate before the process is completed.

However, I find it as a strange stance to make when they have asked for a payment first instead of deducting the fee once recovery is completed. An update shouldn't be too much.

BTW, since successful outcome is not guaranteed as they say, I wonder if you would you get a refund for it? $15K ain't pennies.

It's kind of rude to say "do not contact us." This is unfair! Why shouldn't the user contact them? It's a paid service, after all. Although it's the negligence of the user that caused the problem, the user has also paid big for the recovery. Isn't it his/her right, then, to know what's going on in his request? And why "no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate"? They charged $15,000 but they won't talk to the user? That's ridiculous!

Anyway, OP, you might want to take note of this: "Note: Only Basic Plus and above-verified users are eligible for the recovery process."^[1]

Also, share this wherever you can. Tag their official accounts if possible. I don't see any reason why they should fail to recover your funds. In the first place, BUSD is an ERC-20 token. Also, you shouldn't be charged with too a high a fee to only be told that it can't be recovered.

[1] https://support.bitfinex.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006262533-Deposit-of-the-wrong-tokens-or-to-the-wrong-addresses-on-Bitfinex-Frequently-Asked-Questions-FAQ

[nc50lc]

I would like to know if any of you have had similar experiences with Bitfinex. How long did it take to resolve the situation? Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the process? Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

This isn't reassuring, but a note in their their fee section suggests that it could take "months" so having to wait for more than 3 months time may not be impossible to happen.
Reference: www.bitfinex.com/fees/

However, you must check if you're actually talking to their support instead of the usual scammers who pose as customer support usually via Email.
Sharing the sender's email (if they replied via email) may help users here to identify if it's legit.

As for similar experiences; I can only find successful cross-recovery attempt topics from other exchange so those wont help in you case.
For Bitfinex, there's only one topic about an amount of less than the minimum allowed, so I wont reference it here since it wasn't resolved.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady, but it is their standard procedure based on similar incidents that I could find. Making you wait 3 months is something else which I can’t comprehend. They are practically stealing your $15k. It shouldn’t take this long to recover your BUSD.

Assume they fail to recover or do not recover the fund at all. That 200K BUSD + 15k BUSD. It's a lot of money to lose for anyone. Let's just hope the OP did not send the $15k to the wrong person.

[BitMaxz]

Such a huge amount and 3 months is a very long for recovery I think this kind of problem can be fixed within a week if the support you currently contacted has access to this wallet.
And another thing is you are going to pay $15k which is a pretty high fee just to recover the amount you mistakenly sent to the wrong address.

I tried a research and check for other contact info or direct phone numbers but I can't find any contact support number. However, I found the support@bitfinex.com email on their Twitter account you can try to contact them through email it might help to speed up the recovery process.

Other email that I found: pay@bitfinex.com and press@bitfinex.com this is not a contact email for reporting your issue but you can also try to contact them to get some attention about your case.

[PX-Z]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady, but it is their standard procedure based on similar incidents that I could find.

Talking about that, I only assumed this fee of 15k will be deducted from the sent amount of 200k which is 7.5% of that amount.
It could be worst if he is required to send another 15k for a fee aside from the locked 200k.

[LoyceV]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady

I was thinking the same thing. Even if they charge that much, it would make sense to keep it from the recovered funds.
@OP: are you sure you're dealing with a legit contact, and not someone (even an employee) who saw an opportunity to earn $15k?

[ninor]

Did i read it right? $15k fee for the recovery fee? If that's the amount they charge they should prioritize you. I know there are incidents happen to others the same like this but most of them have good news within a month's timeframe. You should pressure them for this. Do you open a thread on their subreddit as well? If not yet, i recommend to do so. Other than that i don't have any info for them to speed up the process aside from waiting and bumping their customer support.

Yep, $15k is the number. They don't seem to have a subreddit, so I just posted here and a friend reposted on his Twitter, tagging both Bitfinex and Paolo Ardoino. A guy who works at Bitfinex, Riccardo Masutti, saw the tweet and DM'd my friend saying he shared the issue internally with the right team, so let's see if anything comes out of it

[ninor]

Yeah, you can indeed feel it's the least of their priorities from this help article lol. It'd be difficult to get something out of them before the whole thing is done.

There is no time frame or time limit for any discretionary recovery process to be undertaken by Bitfinex, so please be patient. Please do not contact us; wait to be notified. There are no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate before the process is completed.

However, I find it as a strange stance to make when they have asked for a payment first instead of deducting the fee once recovery is completed. An update shouldn't be too much.

BTW, since successful outcome is not guaranteed as they say, I wonder if you would you get a refund for it? $15K ain't pennies.

If it is decided that a recovery will be tried, Bitfinex will attempt a recovery, but a successful outcome is not and cannot be guaranteed.

Just in case, you're on bitfinex.com right? and/or have been talking through official handles? see: https://www.bitfinex.com/channels/

Yep, the article and they themselves were very clear in saying that the timing is impossible to define. However, considering the large amount/fee paid I was hoping for greater speed or frequency of updates.
I definitely hope they will refund me of those 15k if they can't manage to recover the funds! But I'm not so sure about it tbh.
And yes, I'm sure I spoke with the official support

[ninor]

Hi everyone,

I'm seeking information and experiences from anyone who has had similar issues with Bitfinex regarding the recovery of tokens sent to the wrong address/network.

My case began on April 11, 2024, when I mistakenly sent 200k BUSD to my Bitfinex account's ERC-20 address, which was meant for USDT. After reporting the error to Bitfinex support, providing the details and asking if it was possible to recover the funds, on April 12 I was informed that my recovery request was accepted and that the recovery fee would be $15,000. I accepted and paid on the same day.

As of today, the recovery of my funds has not been completed yet. It has been over three months, and the recovery process seems extremely slow and frustrating. I have contacted Bitfinex support several times but have not received any concrete responses or updates on the recovery status. From the beginning, they were always transparent that there is no specific timeframe they can provide, as the resolution involves coordination with senior admins and developers, which may take some time. However, at this point, I am starting to feel very uncomfortable.

I would like to know if any of you have had similar experiences with Bitfinex. How long did it take to resolve the situation? Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the process? Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

That's huge, I guess you need to follow up your case with them to know if they forgot to take care your issue since maybe there are lots of work loads need to pay attention and your case has been buried down with other existing cases.

But that span is so long already and they supposed to prioritized with your case since you already paid huge amount of money for recovery process. I believe if they really work with that case already it will not take long months before they successfully recover that lost funds. I do hope they could able to recover your funds since that amount is really huge.

I don't believe they "forgot" about my case, I followed up with them during these months and last time i spoke to them was on mid June, where they wrote me that "..We are writing to inform we have not forgotten your request. Rest assured it is being treated with the relevant priority, albeit Bitfinex Support team is not able to estimate a precise completion of this process."
it's certainly frustrating tho.

[ninor]

There is no time frame or time limit for any discretionary recovery process to be undertaken by Bitfinex, so please be patient. Please do not contact us; wait to be notified. There are no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate before the process is completed.

However, I find it as a strange stance to make when they have asked for a payment first instead of deducting the fee once recovery is completed. An update shouldn't be too much.

BTW, since successful outcome is not guaranteed as they say, I wonder if you would you get a refund for it? $15K ain't pennies.

It's kind of rude to say "do not contact us." This is unfair! Why shouldn't the user contact them? It's a paid service, after all. Although it's the negligence of the user that caused the problem, the user has also paid big for the recovery. Isn't it his/her right, then, to know what's going on in his request? And why "no possible updates that Bitfinex can or will communicate"? They charged $15,000 but they won't talk to the user? That's ridiculous!

Anyway, OP, you might want to take note of this: "Note: Only Basic Plus and above-verified users are eligible for the recovery process."^[1]

Also, share this wherever you can. Tag their official accounts if possible. I don't see any reason why they should fail to recover your funds. In the first place, BUSD is an ERC-20 token. Also, you shouldn't be charged with too a high a fee to only be told that it can't be recovered.

[1] https://support.bitfinex.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006262533-Deposit-of-the-wrong-tokens-or-to-the-wrong-addresses-on-Bitfinex-Frequently-Asked-Questions-FAQ

I agree on everything. As for the verification status, I have a Full verification with them so that's not an issue

[ninor]

I would like to know if any of you have had similar experiences with Bitfinex. How long did it take to resolve the situation? Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the process? Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

This isn't reassuring, but a note in their their fee section suggests that it could take "months" so having to wait for more than 3 months time may not be impossible to happen.
Reference: www.bitfinex.com/fees/

However, you must check if you're actually talking to their support instead of the usual scammers who pose as customer support usually via Email.
Sharing the sender's email (if they replied via email) may help users here to identify if it's legit.

As for similar experiences; I can only find successful cross-recovery attempt topics from other exchange so those wont help in you case.
For Bitfinex, there's only one topic about an amount of less than the minimum allowed, so I wont reference it here since it wasn't resolved.

I can confirm I talked with the legit support, via email. Their email is the official support@bitfinex.com, and I firstly created the ticket while logged on the website

[ninor]

Such a huge amount and 3 months is a very long for recovery I think this kind of problem can be fixed within a week if the support you currently contacted has access to this wallet.
And another thing is you are going to pay $15k which is a pretty high fee just to recover the amount you mistakenly sent to the wrong address.

I tried a research and check for other contact info or direct phone numbers but I can't find any contact support number. However, I found the support@bitfinex.com email on their Twitter account you can try to contact them through email it might help to speed up the recovery process.

Other email that I found: pay@bitfinex.com and press@bitfinex.com this is not a contact email for reporting your issue but you can also try to contact them to get some attention about your case.

I think the issue lies with the fact that neither the token sent (BUSD) nor the network (BSC) is supported by them. So I guess that's the reason why the recovery can't take a week. But still, 4 months..

I always talked to them via that support@bitfinex email, and as wrote above in another comment yesterday a friend reposted this on his Twitter, tagging both Bitfinex and Paolo Ardoino. A guy who works at Bitfinex, Riccardo Masutti, saw the tweet and DM'd my friend saying he shared the issue internally with the right team, so let's see if anything comes out of it

[ninor]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady, but it is their standard procedure based on similar incidents that I could find.

Talking about that, I only assumed this fee of 15k will be deducted from the sent amount of 200k which is 7.5% of that amount.
It could be worst if he is required to send another 15k for a fee aside from the locked 200k.

I already paid those $15k, which are on top of the 200k..lol

[ninor]

Asking for payment upfront before they’ve even recovered your funds seems kind of shady

I was thinking the same thing. Even if they charge that much, it would make sense to keep it from the recovered funds.
@OP: are you sure you're dealing with a legit contact, and not someone (even an employee) who saw an opportunity to earn $15k?

Well, I'm pretty sure I wasn't scammed on this one, that $15k was taken directly from my account's USD balance, internally. I didn't send crypto to external addresses, I'm dumb but not that dumb

As for taking the fee upfront, it's definitely not nice but it makes sense considering that they have no certainty of outcome..if they couldn't recover the funds they would have worked for free. Sure it would work well as an incentive to do it quickly and well, but hey, they're business choices

[ninor]

Thank you all for your answers by the way.

I found this https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/15u8bem/seeking_community_support_for_unresolved_bitfinex/ which is a similar case. The guy sent USDC on BSC network instead of Ethereum.

In his post he didn't update that it was resolved, but looking at the address he shared, it appears that after 249 days (at the time of writing the post it had been 204 days) his funds were indeed moved in an outgoing transaction from that address.

So I guess that might be the timing..