A Binance user, after purchasing and withdrawing BTC from the exchange, has lucked upon one of just four extremely rare “Epic Sats” from Bitcoin's 2016 halving epoch. These special satoshis, categorized by the Ordinals protocol, are considered some of the most scarce and significant in Bitcoin's history.
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 valuable satoshi for itself, representing a potential multi-million dollar oversight.
Blockchain analysis shows this satoshi, categorized by Ordinals as 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.
The wallet address that now contains this coveted satoshi is bc1ptjcsnnycr52ccwg4mvvsczkwzvc0qydlxw6q7pcelxkx8equk3asduuz86. It was contained in a 0.02 BTC transaction worth around $1,000 at the time, coincidentally paying a transaction fee of just over $1.
It will be fascinating to observe 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 blockchain, 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.
