Sweeper bots burn $4,800 in Bitcoin fees chasing $12.67

A fee war over a compromised address shows how fast automated bots pounce on weak keys, and how badly the math can go Automated sweeper bots spent about $4,800 in Bitcoin transaction fees in January 2026 to capture $12.67 from a compromised address. The bots fought hard for that prize. The miner, who collected the fees, did considerably better. The target was a SegWit address whose private key was effectively public. Whoever set it up used the coinbase transaction ID from Bitcoin block 924,982 as the key.