Incorrect transfers are a nightmare for many users, often resulting in asset losses or the need for high fees to recover them. In order to improve this user experience, Binance recently added significant support for the “Smart Recovery” service on its network.
(Previous Summary: Binance is the king of recovering funds for users who mistakenly deposit to wrong addresses, having recovered nearly 4.4 billion pounds in the past two years.)
(Background Supplement: What to do if you send cryptocurrency to the wrong network address, and can it be recovered? How to avoid mistakes?)
Table of Contents:
Binance adds a series of “Smart Recovery” cryptocurrencies
Binance has recovered nearly 4.4 billion pounds for “mistaken deposit users” in the past two years
How to handle decentralized on-chain transactions?
How to avoid sending to the wrong address again?
For beginners sending cryptocurrencies, the worst fear is accidentally sending them to the wrong address or selecting the wrong blockchain network, resulting in asset loss. Even if it happens on a centralized exchange, it usually requires a significant recovery fee, greatly affecting the user experience.
Recently, Colin Wu, the founder of the blockchain media Wu Blockchain, proposed a suggestion to Binance, which is to provide free recovery services for the first three (ideally) erroneous transfers, and then charge normal fees afterwards. This can provide some comfort to novice users.
In response to this, Binance has decided to significantly expand the range of cryptocurrencies that can be recovered through the “Smart Recovery” mechanism. According to Binance’s announcement, the “Smart Recovery” service can shorten the recovery time for tokens (up to 14 business days) and significantly reduce the corresponding fees (5 USDT).
Previously, this service only supported specific tokens on the MATIC, TRX, BSC, FTM, and ETH networks. If users accidentally deposit unsupported tokens into any of the aforementioned networks and there is a “Recover Now” button displayed next to the system, users only need to click this button to automatically initiate the fund refund process (users can view the deposit records on the deposit history page).
Now, the support range of this service has been expanded to 10 blockchain networks, and the newly supported cryptocurrencies include:
ARBITRUM: WETH, WBTC, GRT
BASE: WETH
BSC: GAL, APE, UST, NFT, RWT, LUNA, GMT
ETH: SOL, FTN, BETH, XSHIB, HBTC, COMBO, GMT
FTM: BNB, DAI
MATIC: WETH, WMATIC, AVAX, IXT, UST, BNB, BUSD, OUSDT
NEAR: USDT
OPTIMISM: WETH, WBTC, DAI
TRX: MOF, USDD
ZKSYNCERA: USDT
Users can see all the records, including erroneous deposits, on the deposit history page.
On February 29th of this year, Binance released a report stating that users, especially beginners, lose tokens due to various factors, including entering the wrong wallet address, selecting the wrong blockchain network, or failing to correctly receive funds due to network issues, blockchain upgrades, or wallet maintenance.
If you are not using centralized exchanges like Binance today and are directly transferring assets on the blockchain or interacting with DEX, the difficulty of recovering assets will be significantly increased. However, you can still try the following:
Confirm the transaction hash to find the receiving address:
You can find the transaction hash of this transaction from a blockchain explorer, which will provide detailed information about the transaction, with the most important being the receiving address.
Search for the recipient through communities and forums:
You can inquire in cryptocurrency communities and forums to see if anyone knows the recipient of that address or determine their commonly used communities based on the assets they hold.
Send on-chain messages:
Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan has launched a real-time messaging feature called Blockscan Chat, where you can send private messages, but whether you will receive a response is uncertain.
Query through third-party programs:
You can use third-party on-chain data programs to check the level of connection between the address and real-life, such as Arkham, which can find social media accounts connected to the address.
Of course, the best scenario is to not enter the wrong address. Here are some details you can check before each transaction:
Check the receiving address: Before sending, confirm the address, at least the first four and last four characters.
Check the receiving blockchain: Confirm that the sent blockchain is the correct one.
Double-check the sending address from the blockchain hash: After sending the cryptocurrency, you can confirm from the blockchain network whether it was sent to the correct address.
(Related Reports: Binance spokesperson responds to how a Binance executive escaped detention in Nigeria; Nigeria accuses Binance of manipulating exchange rates and money laundering; Breaking news: The US government reportedly plans to “send people to investigate the inside of Binance.”)