In a bizarre and nearly catastrophic event, Citigroup almost credited a customer with $81 trillion instead of a mere $280 due to a “fat finger” error, where a wrong number was entered into a computer system. This colossal mistake was only caught when a third employee noticed it, after two others had missed it.

Had the transaction gone through, the customer would have received a sum large enough to buy the entire US stock market, including major tech companies, or even the entire NFL and NBA. With $81 trillion, you could solve global poverty, build quantum computers, and more, or buy Elon Musk’s assets over 200 times.

Despite this being one of the largest ‘fat finger’ errors ever, the bank’s systems were able to prevent the funds from leaving. Citigroup reported the near-miss to the US Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. This wasn’t the first time Citigroup had made a major mistake, as it previously sent $900 million to Revlon creditors in 2020 and was fined £61.6 million last year for causing a flash crash by selling $1.4 billion worth of shares by mistake. The bank also had 10 near misses of over $1 billion last year, highlighting the ongoing challenges in preventing such errors.