Quick Summary:
- A user accidentally sent a rare Bitcoin Ordinal to Binance’s BTC deposit address.
- Binance doesn’t support Ordinals and couldn’t retrieve the asset.
- The Ordinal later appeared for sale on Magic Eden, sparking outrage.
- Accusations of theft flooded social media, aimed at Binance.
- The real twist? A random user unknowingly received the Ordinal via a regular withdrawal.
- The event highlighted a niche practice known as “sats panning.”
- No wrongdoing by Binance—just a bizarre case of blockchain luck.
The Mistake That Made Waves
A crypto user recently made headlines after sending a rare Bitcoin Ordinal—a type of NFT-like collectible—to Binance by mistake. Despite warnings that only regular BTC should be sent to Binance addresses, the user transferred the asset and later learned from support that it was unrecoverable.
Accusations Fly
The user believed the collectible was lost—until he saw it listed on Magic Eden. Furious, he accused Binance of secretly selling the Ordinal, a claim that caught fire on X (formerly Twitter). Critics labeled Binance a “criminal organization” and demanded answers from the company and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.
The Twist: Enter “Sats Panning”
Before the controversy could escalate further, the user deleted his post. Why? He learned about sats panning—a crypto hobby where people repeatedly deposit and withdraw bitcoin in hopes of receiving rare satoshis that hold embedded Ordinals.
At exchanges like Binance, customer deposits are pooled together. Withdrawals send out random satoshis—so the rare one got sent out to a random user by pure chance. That user unknowingly listed the Ordinal for sale, triggering the whole storm.
A Case of Mistaken Blame
No Binance employee took the Ordinal. It was simply withdrawn from the exchange’s bitcoin pool by a sats panner who hit the jackpot without realizing it.
While Binance hasn’t made an official statement, the misunderstanding sheds light on both user responsibility and the quirky side of blockchain culture.