A Binance user, after purchasing and withdrawing BTC from the exchange, has lucked upon one of just four rare “Epic Sats” as defined the Ordinals protocol.
These special satoshis, which do not exist natively on Bitcoin, but can be identified by a companion piece of software, are considered some of the most scarce and significant in Bitcoin’s history. While Bitcoin has a hard limit of 2.1 quadrillion satoshis, or 2.1 million BTC, the protocol does not track them individually.
BREAKING: The first satoshi of #Bitcoin’s second halving block was just found by a Binance user.
A $10 transaction worth 33 $BTC. Jackpot 🙌 pic.twitter.com/rLE16ogNsc
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 2, 2024
The term “Epic Sat” refers to the first satoshi of each Bitcoin halving era, which occurs about every four years. Recently, the first Epic Sat from the 2024 halving sold for over $2 million at auction, sparking intrigue around these rare units.
In this case, the Binance user unintentionally withdrew a transaction containing the Epic Sat from the 420,000th Bitcoin block in 2016. Binance failed to identify and retain the UTXO that contained the valuable satoshi for itself, representing a potential multi-million dollar oversight.
Blockchain analysis shows this UTXO, categorized by Ordinals as containing sat number “1575000000000000,” moved to the user’s wallet after they bought and transferred bitcoin.
Its rarity compares to winning the lottery, as only four such “Epic Sats” exist until now. (In total, 34 will be released over subsequent halvings).
The wallet address that now contains the UTXO that points to the coveted satoshi is bc1ptjcsnnycr52ccwg4mvvsczkwzvc0qydlxw6q7pcelxkx8equk3asduuz86. It was acquired in a 0.02 BTC transaction worth around $1,000 at the time, which paid a transaction fee of just over $1.
Market observers will now doubtless wait to see whether the lucky holder keeps the Epic Sat for themselves or sells it off, potentially for millions.
Sleuths can verify the transaction by referencing Ordinals indexing tools like Ord.io and Ordinals.com. These identify the satoshi’s number and position in the chain, allowing its location to be traced via an explorer-like Mempool.space.
While controversial, these Epic Sats create profound digital scarcity akin to rare collectables. The Binance user’s good fortune may ignite further interest and intensify the search for the remaining two Epic Sats from 2012 and 2020.
