$3.4B in ETH Lost Due to User Errors – A Wake-Up Call for Crypto Users
Conor Grogan, Head of Product at Coinbase, has issued a serious warning: over $3.4 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) has been permanently lost due to simple user errors on the blockchain.
What Went Wrong?
The major causes of these losses include:
Typing or copying wrong wallet addresses
Bugs in smart contracts
Lost access to wallets (e.g., forgotten passwords)
NFT minting mistakes
Some of the biggest ETH losses due to errors include
Web3 Foundation: Lost 306,000 ETH due to a Parity multisig smart contract bug
QuadrigaCX: Lost 60,000 ETH from a smart contract issue
Akutars NFT Project: Lost 11,500 ETH during a flawed NFT mint
Around 25,000 ETH (≈ $92M) was intentionally or mistakenly sent to Ethereum burn addresses, making it unrecoverable
To avoid similar mistakes, users should always double-check:
The correct cryptocurrency being sent
The wallet address and blockchain network
Memos or tags, if required by the receiving wallet
Even though smart contract errors are now less common, most crypto losses today still come down to human mistakes. One wrong letter in an address can send your crypto to a dead wallet forever.
Mistakes in crypto are often irreversible. Always review every transaction carefully—because in blockchain, there are no do-overs.
