As "Gone With The Wind" teaches us, some of the biggest business empires were built during wars. Or chaotic times. Or haphazard. Or hectic behavior. 

Call it how you want, but this is exactly what happens in the Bitcoin universe right now: chaos. Price dropped more than 50%, we still don't know if and in which direction the blockchain will go, and the entire altcoins universe shrunk dramatically. We saw Steem trading at $2.4 just less than a month ago and now it's below $1.

But not everybody loses during chaos. Apparently, some smart folks are making tons of money out of this mess.

According to a Twitter user [@lopp](http://twitter.com/lopp) (Jameson Lopp) during the last couple of days someone has sending BTC transaction with fees increased no less than 100 times! 100x the price for a transaction. That's quite a hefty fee for a miner!
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![Screen Shot 2017-07-16 at 6.50.33 PM.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYQAEoR7QSgSxdRogE3hD3yPcL6o9ehgEUZeHcwRonCo1/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-16%20at%206.50.33%20PM.png)
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Of course, people start speculating and rather sooner than later someone finds out that it might have been Coinbase.
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![Screen Shot 2017-07-16 at 6.57.54 PM.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZJ8xLCEk2U3EtvaFJLw6ayHpRauZUadMkjzLaihkENwU/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-16%20at%206.57.54%20PM.png)
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Obviously, there's no proof for that. but one possible scenario is that somebody is trying to incentivize (bribe?) miners to follow a potential hardfork on or around August 1st.

Of course, it's all speculation now. 

_Later edit: it was confirmed that the entity was Coinbase, but apparently, none of their users was hurt, they just overspent $325k in fees:
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![Screen Shot 2017-07-16 at 7.18.26 PM.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR15XQnBVdiGXz9gbie3VuAFqsoFKSEFQGjTGw5BiuzFj/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-16%20at%207.18.26%20PM.png) 
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_I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at [Dragos Roua](http://dragosroua.com) where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua._
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<center>_You can also vote for me as witness here:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses_</center>
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_If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform)_:
* [Rewards: Were Does The Money Come From?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-rewards-were-does-the-money-come-from)
* [Netiquette: How To Avoid Being A Steem Douche?](https://steemit.com/steem/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-netiquette-how-to-avoid-being-a-steem-douche)
* [Witnesses: What Are They And Why Should You Care?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-witnesses-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care)
* [How Can I Mine Steem And What CPU / GPU Power Do I Need For That?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-how-can-i-mine-steem-and-what-cpu-gpu-power-do-i-need-for-that)