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'BitGo Detected a Transaction' Notification Emails — Common Inquiries and Issues

"BitGo Detected a Transaction" Notification Emails — Common Inquiries and Issues

Problem

Customers frequently contact support after receiving a "BitGo Detected a Transaction" email from BitGo Notifications. The inquiries fall into several categories: the customer received a notification but cannot see the funds in their account, notification emails stopped arriving entirely, duplicate notifications were sent for the same transaction, a notification arrived for an unexpected or unrecognized transaction, or the customer forwarded the notification seeking general help with a withdrawal, transaction status, or account access issue. These emails are sent by BitGo's notification system for deposits, withdrawals, and settlement activity across all supported coins and account types (including Go Account, Trading Wallet, and custodial wallets).

Diagnostics

  • Verify the notification is legitimate: Confirm the email originated from BitGo Notifications. Ask the customer to log in directly at https://app.bitgo.com/auth/log-in rather than clicking links in the email.
  • Check the transaction in the platform: Ask for the BitGo Transaction ID or on-chain transaction hash. Look up the transaction in the admin tool (e.g., bga t <txid>) or on a public block explorer (e.g., https://etherscan.io, https://mempool.space) to confirm its state (confirmed, pending, failed).
  • Confirm correct enterprise context: Spoof the user's account and check whether the customer is viewing the correct enterprise. Funds may be in a different enterprise than the one currently selected in the UI dropdown.
  • Check wallet type and transaction type: Determine if the notification relates to a trade settlement, on-chain transfer, fiat withdrawal, or wallet initialization deposit (e.g., XRP reserve). Trade settlement transactions do not appear in regular transaction history.
  • Inspect notification delivery status: If notifications are not arriving, check the BitGo status page at https://status.bitgo.com/ for known outages. Check whether the customer's email address has been blocked/suppressed and whether deposit/withdrawal notification settings are enabled for the wallet.
  • Check for duplicate notification bug: If the customer reports receiving the same notification multiple times (e.g., 7–8 copies), note the BitGo Transaction ID and escalate — this has been a known engineering issue (Jira WIN-4107).
  • Check for delayed/queued notifications: If the customer received a notification for a very old transaction (e.g., from years ago), this may be a side effect of a mail server queue backlog. Confirm the original transaction date versus the notification send timestamp.
  • Review activity log for unauthorized concerns: If the customer suspects unauthorized activity, review the account's activity log for recent logins, IP addresses, and password changes. Check if the transaction was part of a trading order or settlement.

Resolution

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#funds-not-visible-wrong-enterprise

Trigger: Customer received a "BitGo Detected a Transaction" email but cannot see the funds in their account when logged in.

Signals: funds not visible, balance zero, don't see transaction, Go Account, received USD, enterprise dropdown

Steps:

  1. Ask the customer to log in at https://app.bitgo.com/auth/log-in.
  2. Instruct them to switch to the correct enterprise using the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the screen. Provide the enterprise ID if available.
  3. Once the correct enterprise is selected, confirm the funds are visible in the Go Account or relevant wallet.
  4. If the customer still cannot see the funds after switching enterprises, spoof the user account to verify the balance internally.
  5. If the balance is confirmed present, guide the customer to the correct view. If not, escalate to engineering.

Notes: This is a very common issue with Go Account / FTX creditor distributions where customers are in the wrong enterprise context. The funds are present but not displayed until the correct enterprise is selected.

"The reason you are unable to view the funds in your BitGo account is because you are in the wrong enterprise. Could you please switch to the desired Enterprise using the dropdown menu, which is typically located in the top right corner of your screen?" (ticket #359654)

"Could you please switch to the desired Enterprise using the dropdown menu, which is typically located in the top right corner of your screen? Please select the Enterprise with the ID: 678ece931e7d5e1318ceaf1dacab7454" (ticket #358568)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#trade-settlement-not-in-history

Trigger: Customer received a notification for a USD amount but cannot find the transaction in regular transaction history; the transaction is related to a trade settlement.

Signals: trade settlement, not in transaction history, Trading Wallet, limit order, reserved amount, USD received, settlement

Steps:

  1. Explain to the customer that Trade Settlement transactions do not appear in the regular transaction history.
  2. Instruct them to locate the transaction in the "Transaction Details" Report:
    • Log in to the BitGo account.
    • Switch to Classic View.
    • Click on the nine-dots menu next to the notification (bell) icon.
    • Select Reports.
    • Generate the "Transaction Details" Report.
  3. If the notification was triggered by a limit order settlement, explain that the reserved amount for the limit order may differ from the fill price, and the excess is returned during settlement.
  4. For Go Account trade status, instruct the customer to navigate to the Trade tab, then to the Orders panel under the Trade builder, where the trade should reflect a status. Request a screenshot with the state and request ID if further investigation is needed.

Notes: This scenario applies to notifications showing USD received in a Trading Wallet or Go Account where the amount relates to trade settlement or limit order excess return.

"Please note that Trade Settlement transactions do not appear in the regular transaction history. However, you can locate them in the 'Transaction Details' Report. To access this report, please follow the steps below: Log in to your BitGo account. Switch to Classic View. Click on the nine-dots menu next to the notification (bell) icon. Select Reports. Generate the 'Transaction Details' Report." (ticket #267438)

"Our team had advised that as a limit order was placed for this, the amount needed to fill the order at the limit price is the amount of USD reserved from your account ($29.54). Then the order filled at a price lower than your limit amount ($19.69), and so the extra (reserved amount) was returned back to your account during settlement." (ticket #215994)

"If you login to the platform and navigate to the Trade tab, then to the Orders panel under the Trade builder, this Trade should reflect a status." (ticket #149400)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#notifications-stopped-mail-server-outage

Trigger: Customer reports that "BitGo Detected a Transaction" emails have stopped arriving for known transactions across one or more wallets.

Signals: notifications not received, no emails, transaction detection mails, stopped, outage, mail server

Steps:

  1. Check the BitGo status page at https://status.bitgo.com/ for any active or recent incidents affecting email notifications.
  2. Ask the customer for transaction hashes or BitGo Transaction IDs for transactions that should have triggered notifications.
  3. Verify internally that the customer's email address has not been suppressed or blocked. Perform an unblock on the email address if needed.
  4. Confirm that the wallet's notification settings are enabled for deposits and withdrawals.
  5. Confirm that the customer is not referring to webhooks rather than email notifications.
  6. If no customer-side issue is found, escalate to the engineering team. This has been caused by a mail server integration issue where the service became overworked, stopped sending emails, and queued unsent notifications, which further compounded the problem.
  7. Inform the customer that engineering will investigate. Note: in past incidents, a backfill of missed notifications was not always possible after the fix was deployed.

Notes: A known incident around late January / early February 2025 caused widespread notification failures. Engineering cleared the queue and re-enabled the service. A related status page incident was posted at https://status.bitgo.com/incidents/9mftr0t3dz8l. If the issue recurs, escalate promptly.

"The issue was with our mail server integration. This service became overworked and stopped sending emails. These missed emails were not skipped, but became queued up which further compounded the issue. Our engineering team cleared this queue and the offending email and was able to clear the queue and re-enable the service." (ticket #190102)

"Our engineering team report this should now be fully resolved with email notifications re-enabled. Unfortunately, due to the issue experienced, a backfill of missed notices is not possible." (ticket #196647)

"Apologies, this might be due to the recent outage we have here: https://status.bitgo.com/incidents/9mftr0t3dz8l" (ticket #199730)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#duplicate-notifications

Trigger: Customer receives the same "BitGo Detected a Transaction" notification multiple times (e.g., 7–8 copies) for a single transaction.

Signals: duplicate notifications, same notification, 8 times, multiple emails, repeated

Steps:

  1. Ask the customer for the BitGo Transaction ID from one of the duplicate notifications.
  2. Verify on-chain and in the admin tool that this corresponds to a single transaction.
  3. Escalate to the engineering team with the transaction ID and the number of duplicate emails received.
  4. This has been tracked as a known bug (Jira WIN-4107). Inform the customer that the issue has been escalated and will be resolved by engineering.
  5. Follow up with the customer once engineering confirms the fix.

Notes: This bug has been observed and resolved in the past. If the customer reports it recurring, re-escalate with fresh transaction details.

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#delayed-notification-old-transaction

Trigger: Customer receives a notification for a transaction that occurred months or years ago, causing confusion.

Signals: old transaction, delayed email, 2019, years ago, queued, stale notification

Steps:

  1. Compare the "Sent at" timestamp in the notification email with the actual on-chain transaction date.
  2. If there is a large discrepancy (e.g., notification for a 2019 transaction arriving in 2024), explain that this was caused by an ongoing issue with the email queue at BitGo's end, which has since been resolved.
  3. Confirm the transaction itself is valid and no action is needed.
  4. If the customer wants to delete their account or stop receiving emails, follow standard account closure procedures.

Notes: This was observed in at least one case where a notification for a 2019 LTC transaction was sent in October 2024 due to a mail queue issue.

"This email is legit and was triggered from BitGo's end for a transaction made in 2019. It was due to an ongoing issue with emails at our end which has been resolved." (ticket #274353)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#xrp-wallet-initialization-deposit

Trigger: Customer created a new XRP wallet and received a notification for a small XRP deposit (12.022500 XRP) they did not initiate.

Signals: XRP, 12.022500, wallet activation, initialize, reserve, new wallet

Steps:

  1. Explain that when creating an XRP wallet, BitGo automatically deposits a minimum of 12.022500 XRP to initialize/activate the wallet.
  2. Inform the customer that this amount will not be withdrawable — the XRP wallet will always maintain a balance of 12.022500 XRP as per the XRP Ledger reserve requirement.
  3. No further action is needed.

"When creating XRP wallet BitGo will automatically deposit a minimum of 12.022500 XRP to initialize/activate wallet. This amount will not be withdraw-able, XRP wallet will always have a balance of 12.022500 XRP" (ticket #164962)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#unsolicited-token-or-nft-received

Trigger: Customer received a notification about an unexpected token, NFT, or dust transaction in their wallet that they did not initiate.

Signals: unsolicited, airdrop, ERC1155, NFT, dust, unexpected token, scam, did not initiate

Steps:

  1. Explain that BitGo cannot prevent the receipt of coins or tokens to an on-chain address. Anyone with the address can send assets to it.
  2. If the received asset is an NFT or airdrop token, confirm with engineering that there is no risk to wallet functionality with the token residing in the wallet.
  3. For dust transactions on chains like TON, if the customer sees a small "Sent" transaction they did not initiate, investigate further — this may be a system bug rather than unauthorized access. Check the transfer data in admin tools and escalate to engineering if the transfer appears to be incorrectly indexed.
  4. If the customer suspects unauthorized activity, freeze the wallet as a precaution and initiate a security review. To unfreeze the wallet later, schedule a video call for identity verification via https://calendly.com/bitgo-client-delivery/videoid.

Notes: In the TON dust case, engineering identified a system bug that incorrectly indexed a child transaction with a fee amount as a "send" type. The transfer data was corrected by consolidation, and an RCA was provided. Unsolicited NFTs/airdrops on Ethereum or Polygon generally pose no risk to wallet functionality.

"This appears to be an NFT, possibly an Airdrop. Unfortunately, we are unable to prevent the receipt of coin/tokens to an on-chain address. ... Our engineering team confirmed there is no risk to wallet functionality with this token residing in the wallet." (ticket #275115)

"Due to a system bug, we accidentally indexed this child txn, as there is no value transfer in the in_msg, we just created the transfer entry with the fee amount of this txn i.e. 'value': -436 and it was showing as send type, though it was a zero value receive txn to your receive address" (ticket #260307)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#account-access-2fa-reset

Trigger: Customer forwards a "BitGo Detected a Transaction" notification because they have lost access to their account and need help regaining access (e.g., lost 2FA).

Signals: 2FA, lost access, wallet access, keycard, public key, first 8 / last 8 characters, reset

Steps:

  1. Ask the customer if they have any access to the BitGo website.
  2. If they have login credentials but lost 2FA, ask them to provide the first and last 8 characters of the BitGo public key as shown on their wallet keycard for verification.
  3. Once verified, complete the 2FA reset process.
  4. Instruct the customer to log back into their account and follow the instructions to set up 2FA again.
  5. If the customer also cannot log in with their password after 2FA reset, direct them to initiate a password reset at https://app.bitgo.com/auth/recover-password.

"Yes, can you please provide the first and last 8 characters of the BitGo public key as shown on your wallet keycard for verification?" (ticket #193651)

"If you have trouble logging in to our website, please use this link to initiate a password reset - https://app.bitgo.com/auth/recover-password" (ticket #193651)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#withdrawal-or-transaction-status-inquiry

Trigger: Customer forwards a notification and asks about the status of a withdrawal, pending transaction, or when funds will arrive at their bank or destination wallet.

Signals: withdrawal status, unconfirmed, pending, when will I receive, bank transfer, transaction hash, approved

Steps:

  1. Ask for the BitGo Transaction ID or on-chain transaction hash.
  2. Look up the transaction on the relevant block explorer (e.g., https://etherscan.io for ETH/ERC-20, https://mempool.space for BTC) and confirm its on-chain status.
  3. If the transaction is confirmed on-chain but the destination has not credited it, advise the customer to contact the destination wallet or exchange support team.
  4. For fiat (USD) withdrawals from Go Account, confirm whether BitGo has processed the transaction. Fiat bank transfers typically take 3–5 business days.
  5. If a withdrawal failed, inform the customer and advise them to re-initiate.
  6. If the customer initiated duplicate withdrawals accidentally, check the status of each — if one failed and one is pending, advise accordingly. Note that once a transaction is broadcast on-chain, it generally cannot be cancelled.

Notes: BitGo uses the Ethereum mainnet (ETH Network) for ETH and ERC-20 token transactions. Customers can verify on https://etherscan.io. For FTX creditor distributions, refer customers to https://www.bitgo.com/ftx-faq for additional information.

"We were able to verify that the transaction was successfully broadcasted on the Blockchain and the transaction was performed on ETH Network. Ref to the public explorer: https://etherscan.io/tx/..." (ticket #255260)

"We see the withdrawal initiated on 6/16/25 had failed and the second withdrawal is still unconfirmed. Please allow 2-3 days for this to be processed and let us know if it does not confirmed then." (ticket #217958)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#suspected-unauthorized-activity

Trigger: Customer reports they did not authorize a transaction shown in the notification and suspects unauthorized access to their account.

Signals: unauthorized, someone got to my account, did not initiate, freeze, suspicious, security

Steps:

  1. As a precaution, temporarily freeze the customer's account to prevent further unauthorized activity.
  2. Review the account's activity log for recent logins, IP addresses, and password changes.
  3. Check whether the transaction in question was part of a legitimate trading order or settlement. Provide transaction details to the customer for confirmation.
  4. Ask the customer to confirm whether they authorized the transaction and whether they recently changed their password.
  5. If unauthorized access is confirmed, escalate to the security/compliance team.
  6. To unfreeze the account later, schedule a video call for identity verification: https://calendly.com/bitgo-client-delivery/videoid. The customer must provide a government-issued photo ID during the call.

Notes: In several cases, the "unauthorized" transaction turned out to be a legitimate trading order the customer did not recall. Always verify before escalating.

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#transaction-auto-rejected-policy

Trigger: Customer received a "BitGo Transaction Request automatically rejected" email and wants to understand why their transaction was rejected.

Signals: automatically rejected, pending approval, 30 days, policy, did not receive a response

Steps:

  1. Explain that BitGo automatically rejects pending transaction requests that do not receive the required approvals within 30 days.
  2. Provide the transaction details including the Pending Approval ID, initiator, amount, destination address, and rejection timestamp.
  3. Advise the customer to re-initiate the transaction and ensure it receives the required approvals promptly.

"The transaction failed because it was not approved within 30 days after submission." (ticket #270507)

Scenario: detected-transaction-fwd-notifications#btc-fanout-split-explanation

Trigger: Customer notices their BTC balance was split into multiple addresses after a withdrawal and wants to understand why.

Signals: split, multiple addresses, fanout, change, unspent, BTC, UTXO

Steps:

  1. Explain that when a Bitcoin transaction is created, the entire unspent output (UTXO) must be consumed. Any remaining amount is returned as change.
  2. If a large unspent output was used, BitGo automatically returns the remaining balance as multiple smaller outputs (known as a "fanout transaction") for operational efficiency and future withdrawals.
  3. Confirm that all output addresses belong to the customer's BitGo wallet. The customer can verify this by comparing the output addresses on the blockchain with their BitGo wallet addresses.
  4. Reassure the customer that no funds were lost or sent externally.

"When you sent 0.1 BTC to Kraken, BitGo automatically split the remaining balance into multiple smaller outputs (fanout) for operational efficiency and future withdrawals. The only amount sent to Kraken was 0.1 BTC. All other outputs stayed in your BitGo wallet, so your funds remained fully under your control." (ticket #270809)

Related

  • setting-up-a-wallet — Wallet notification settings (webhooks, deposit/withdrawal alerts) are configured in the wallet Settings tab.
  • bitcoin-consolidation — Related to UTXO management, fanout transactions, and unspent output handling for BTC wallets.
  • none identified for a dedicated email notification troubleshooting article.