Mistaken Deposit
Mistaken transfer · Wrong-network deposit · Missing-memo deposit · Misdirected deposit · Deposit recovery
Crypto sent by mistake, to the wrong address or network or without a needed memo or tag, so it never reaches the intended account balance.
Simple explanation
Background: Koreans call it 오입금 ("wrong deposit") or, in exchange terms, 착오전송 ("mistaken transfer"). Korean exchanges run recovery procedures for coins that land in their wallets by mistake, but whether a case can be recovered, how long it takes and what it costs vary.
A blockchain transfer cannot be cancelled or reversed once sent. If the sender made a mistake, the chain still processes anything well formed and records it as complete. So whether mistakenly sent coins can come back depends on who holds the private key of the address they landed at, and whether that person or exchange can, and will, return them.
Mistakes fall into a few kinds. First, the wrong network: if the receiving exchange accepts USDT only on the Ethereum network and you send it over BNB Smart Chain, the withdrawal completes because the two networks' addresses look the same, but the exchange does not support that network and nothing is credited. Second, a missing or wrong memo or tag on coins like XRP and Stellar, where many customers share one address: the coins reach the exchange's address, but it cannot tell whose they are. Third, sending a coin the receiving exchange does not support. Fourth, sending to an old deposit address the exchange deleted when it changed wallets. Fifth, sending to someone else's address altogether, or to a token's contract address.
In the first four cases the coins reached an address whose key the exchange holds, so you can apply for the exchange to find and return them, a process Korean exchanges call deposit recovery (오입금 복구 or 착오전송 복구). Whether it works depends on the exchange's technology and security policy: whether the key for that address can be used on the other network, whether the exchange can handle that coin at all, and in some cases the exchange declines for technical or security reasons. In the fifth case the exchange cannot touch the coins; all you can do is find the owner and ask. Coins sent to an address nobody holds a key to, such as a token contract, are effectively lost.
To apply you usually need the TXID (transaction ID), the coin and network, the amount, the sending and receiving addresses, and the time sent. You apply to the side where the coins arrived, the receiving exchange, not the sender. Since 2023 Upbit has let customers look up a mistaken transfer by its TXID on a dedicated recovery page and apply for its return straight from there. Each exchange has its own channel, required documents and identity checks, so follow the receiving exchange's help-desk instructions.
Recovery can take time and cost money. The exchange has to retrieve the coins from its wallets by hand, which can take a long while, and some charge a recovery fee. Upbit, for example, listed recovery fees of ₩100,000 (about $71) for coins it supports and ₩200,000 (about $143) for coins it does not, and waived them from its October 2023 mistaken-transfer prevention campaign until January 2024. Current fees, waivers and timescales differ by exchange and can change, so check the help-desk notices. A flat fee weighs more heavily on small amounts, and any price move while you wait is yours to bear.
Sending to another person's address is hard to fix even through the courts. In December 2021, Korea's Supreme Court held that a man who kept and spent bitcoin mistakenly transferred to him had not committed breach of trust (case 2020Do9789). Crypto is not "property" in the sense of the embezzlement offence, the court said, and the recipient was not someone "handling another person's affairs". It did say the recipient may owe the money back as unjust enrichment, a civil matter. In practice that means criminal law offers little leverage and you may face a civil suit, so checking before you send is by far the surest protection. This is general information as of early November 2026, not legal advice.
Most mistakes happen in a hurry. Before sending, match the coin, the network, the address and whether a memo or tag is needed against the receiving exchange's deposit screen, and copy the address fresh each time instead of reusing a saved one. On a route you have not used before, many people send a small amount first and wait for it to arrive. Transfers between Korean exchanges, or to and from exchanges abroad, can also be held or returned when the Travel Rule check fails; that follows a different process from a mistaken deposit, so follow the exchange's instructions.
Rush coins across to catch a wide kimchi premium and make a mistake, and the premium may shrink while you wait for recovery, with a fee on top, leaving a loss bigger than the gain you hoped for. Sending a coin whose deposits are suspended is not a mistaken deposit, but it will not be credited until deposits reopen. Before sending, CoinGaja's deposit and withdrawal suspension page shows whether the receiving exchange's deposits are open, and Exchange notices carries wallet-change and network-change notices.
Example
1,000 USDT (₩1,400,000, about $1,000, with Tether at ₩1,400) sent over a network the receiving exchange does not support → "complete" on the blockchain, 0 USDT in the exchange balance
At an exchange charging a ₩100,000 (about $71) recovery fee → ₩1,400,000 − ₩100,000 = ₩1,300,000 (about $929); the cost is 10 ÷ 140 = about 7.14%
The same mistake with 100 USDT (₩140,000, $100) → ₩140,000 − ₩100,000 = ₩40,000 (about $29); the cost is 10 ÷ 14 = about 71.43%
Moving ₩10,000,000 (about $7,100) of coins for a +2.00% premium and making a mistake → expected gain ₩200,000 (about $143); if the coin falls 5% while you wait → ₩10,000,000 × 5% = ₩500,000 (about $357) lost, plus the recovery fee
Had you sent 10 USDT first as a test → a mistake would tie up only 10 USDT (₩14,000, $10, with Tether at ₩1,400)
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
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