A crypto user recently accused Binance of stealing a rare Bitcoin Ordinal after he mistakenly sent it to the wrong wallet address, sparking a viral storm on social media.
The user had sent a picture-based Ordinal, a type of digital collectible similar to NFTs, to his Binance bitcoin deposit address, despite Binance warning customers to only send regular BTC.
After realizing his mistake, he contacted Binance support for help but was told the asset could not be recovered.
He assumed the Ordinal was gone forever—until he spotted it listed for sale on Magic Eden, a popular marketplace for digital assets.
Angry and confused, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, claiming that someone at Binance must have secretly retrieved the Ordinal and put it up for sale.
The post quickly gained attention. Users on X criticized Binance, calling it a “criminal organization” and accusing it of digital theft.
“There’s probably nothing you can do unfortunately,” one user replied under the post. Others tagged Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, calling for answers and transparency.
But the story took an unexpected turn. The user deleted his post after learning about “sats panning,” a little-known crypto hobby where people search for rare satoshis—tiny fractions of bitcoin.
Bitcoin Ordinals are tied to specific satoshis, and whoever owns those sats also owns the Ordinals embedded in them.
At large exchanges like Binance, all customer deposits get mixed together into a big pool of bitcoin, known as commingled funds.
When someone requests a withdrawal, Binance sends out random satoshis from the pool, without checking if they are special or rare.
A savvy collector had withdrawn bitcoin from Binance and unknowingly received the sat that contained the lost Ordinal, like winning a digital lottery.
This practice, called sats panning, works like old-school gold panning. Users deposit and withdraw bitcoin repeatedly, hoping to stumble upon rare sats.
Sometimes, one of these rare finds gets listed on platforms like Magic Eden, just like what happened in this case.
Binance did not take the Ordinal, and no employee was involved. The collectible was picked up by chance during a regular withdrawal.
As of now, Binance has not officially responded to the incident. The viral post is gone, but the buzz remains.
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