Refund Request: Compensation for 57 DOT Lost Due to Missing Cross-Chain Swap Warning on Hydration/Nova Wallet

1

Hello Polkadot Community,

I am submitting this for feedback on how

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to request compensation for the loss of 57 DOT caused by a missing user protection during a cross-chain swap using Hydration via Nova Wallet.

On my transaction, I swapped MYTH to DOT using Hydration, then sent the DOT cross-chain to my Coinbase deposit address (13ZRYBFy49A72KzQf83CBxWdvYpaugdmiBrYi5Pm5jE5eiSh). At the time, there was no warning that exchanges do not recognize cross-chain swaps.

After I reported the issue to Nova Wallet support, the Nova team responded quickly, kindly, and very professionally. They immediately added a warning and prevention system to avoid this problem for future users. This action acknowledges that necessary protections were missing at the time of my transaction.

I want to make it clear that I am not bashing Nova Wallet in any way — I still love the app and appreciate the team’s hard work. However, I cannot afford to lose this much money from an accident that could have been avoided if I had been provided all the necessary information at the time.

Although the technical transfer was completed, the end-user experience was flawed, and the missing warnings directly caused the loss of access to my DOT. The lost amount, 57 DOT, is valued at $497.25 today.

I am respectfully requesting a refund of 57 DOT, to be sent to my receiving address:
14SevyTm2xcGsLgBkKrjJydzhrDuCky1m5bEz5ftY1fTj65y

The original Hydration account used was:
7M3DDUaAFHi4i3AQosHE6kPmRRERfJdoeLVWk9Brht8BTPMk

Nova Wallet’s support response confirms the facts and is attached as evidence.

To maintain trust and protect users in the Polkadot ecosystem, I respectfully ask for your support in approving this compensation.

Thank you for your help and understanding.

2

Could you please provide us with the link to your transaction and not just a screenshot from 2024?
I am unable to find your transaction of 57 DOT.

1 Like
3

No problem,

Hi there,

This transaction ID corresponds to a MYTH to DOT swap on the Hydration network: https://hydration.subscan.io/extrinsic/0xbf235ebec091e9d8d55545b9ee90745f0a5fb2a13e05a33d1c26373579e770fa. After the swap, you’ve sent your DOT cross-chain to a Coinbase deposit address on Polkadot: Subscan | Hydration XCM Transfer Details.

Unfortunately, most exchanges cannot recognize cross-chain transfers automatically. Your cross-chain transfer was completed successfully and your DOT are in your Coinbase deposit address, but Coinbase may not be able to process this deposit. Please get in touch with the Coinbase support team to see if they can recognize your deposit manually or refund your transaction.

To avoid this situation in the future, we recommend first sending tokens cross-chain to your own account, and then doing a regular transfer to the exchange deposit address.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Alina

Novasama Support Engineer

4

So it really is an end of 2024 transaction. Coinbase wasn’t able to resolve the situation?

Can you tell me if this is related?
https://polkadot.subscan.io/extrinsic/0xb0f987baa4c0bda986ca375181fdc034446da557b5801839cf617e7540f83ed6

In my opinion, it is up to Coinbase to handle the situation. However, since it’s a small amount, it’s something to consider. I would like to point out that this has already happened to other users, and I encourage users especially when transferring back to a CEX, to take precautions and perform a test transaction (given the low transaction fees, it’s something we can afford). This doesn’t mean you are entirely at fault, everyone has their own responsibilities. However, asking the community for a refund might not be well received, because doing so would open the door for all users in similar cases, and that is not the intention.

The sole objective is to bring improvements in UI/UX to avoid such incidents, and ideally, CEXs should handle these situations. Several community entities are working on this, including the UX bounty project with Braille. @Alex_Houdz

1 Like
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I would agree accept for 2 things. 1) Cross-chain implies I was moving from an unsupported chain Mythos to a supported chain Polkadot, which was supported on Coinbase. This was my assumption only because there was no warning of conflict and if crosschain works natively in Nova Wallet, it’s logical a non dev would assume the same outside of Nova.

  1. A change was made immediately following this, that prevents users from doing this again.

Bonus: A Dot holder who by his on admission sent DOT to a wrong account was approved for 7 times my request with no supporting evidence.

I think this is pretty fair considering…

6

Sorry, left this part out.

Coinbase says those funds are lost forever unless Hydration support gets added, which most likely won’t happen if at all.

7

Things that don’t add up here:

A few days after the XCM deposit, the funds were transferred to a Coinbase hot wallet, excluding the ED.

Coinbase was definitely able to access those funds. The transfer might have been the result of a support request, but that’s speculative.

Coinbase says those funds are lost forever unless Hydration support gets added, which most likely won’t happen if at all.

But the funds were transferred to a destination account on Polkadot - no Hydration support needed here.

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I don’t know what that means.

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The folks here were impeccable with their response. Coinbase doesn’t support Hydration yet or may never will as stated by @10asee and the funds were transfer to a Coinbase hot wallet according to @1xGiraffe.

In my opinion you may be frustrated because you lost your funds and is not possible to recover. In crypto, when unsure about a transfer always make a small transfer before transferring large amounts.

10

Okay, if that’s the case, then why make the update to the app? Why not let it continue? Why because that’s a horrible user experience for any product, especially one handling millions of dollars.

If my expectation was and I paid for, a cross chain swap; why would I need to test the transfer? The implication is that you’ll do everything in one step so I don’t have to make multiple transactions.

That didnt happen. Yet I’m supposed to just eat it. Okay. Noted.

Thanks alot.

11

My friend @10asee , i’m sorry but it’s a known problem. :melting_face:

See the whole issue here:

I’ve worked with and helped many people facing similar issues.

If Coinbase says they can’t assist you, that’s a dead end. In my experience, only Binance and Bybit monitor cross-chain transactions and can move assets to the intended final account.

Technically, CEXs can recover assets in cross-chain scenarios, but Coinbase probably lacks the processes and tools to do so, or they might be taking advantage of your mistake.

Remember, with CEXs, “not your keys, not your coins”—they can act as they please.

In your case, I agree the issue stems from the wallet, specifically Nova wallet. They’ve been aware for months, as many users have faced this problem. Yet, they’ve chosen not to prioritize fixing their UI by adding clear warnings for CEX use cases.

So i really feel sorry for you believe me :smiling_face_with_tear:
I’m fighting to make it fix once for good within the ecosystem, Subwallet improved a lot, Talisman has the new upgraded UI to be delivered. Only remains Nova without any progress.

Dapps have fixed that for a long time, so it’s a better practice to use dapps whenever you can because they all have clear warnings.