A Binance customer accused the giant exchange of stealing a picture-based Ordinal, a bitcoin asset similar to a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). He mistakenly sent the asset to his bitcoin (BTC) deposit address, despite Binance’s warnings to only deposit common BTC. After realizing his mistake, he contacted Binance support for help. Binance’s customer service said they could not help him. At that point, he assumed the asset was lost forever. However, he later found his Ordinal listed for sale on Magic Eden. Read more: Luke Dashjr calls Ordinals a spam ‘bug’ that should be ‘fixed’ Enraged, the customer alleged in a X post that a Binance employee secretly recovered the Ordinal – in spite of Binance’s official claim that it was unrecoverable – and listed it for sale. However, once the user learned about a practice called sats panning, he deleted his original post with tacit embarrassment. The original claim went viral on social media, with many critics happy to dogpile onto Binance, the fabulously profitable conglomerate. Sympathizers tagged in founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and decried “theft.” Others called Binance a “criminal organization,” lamenting, “There is probably nothing you can do unfortunately.” Panning for sats Soon enough, more experienced BTC users jumped into the chat. They explained what actually happened. As it turns out, Binance did not steal the Ordinal NFT. Instead, a savvy collector of rare BTC had panned Binance and won the lottery. Panning for satoshis or ‘sats,’ the smallest denomination of bitcoin equal to 1/100 millionth of 1 BTC, is the digital version of the centuries-old practice of gold panning. Just as gold panners sift through waterbeds and piles of dirt in the hopes of finding a nugget, sats panners sift through piles of bitcoin in the hopes of finding a rare sat. Bitcoin Ordinals or other NFT-like data are assigned to specific sats. Whoever owns those sats owns the right to those Ordinals. Spotting a massive pile of commingled bitcoin at giant exchanges – some of which contain rare sats – users have been depositing and withdrawing massive quantities of bitcoin in recent months. Over and over again, they deposit and then withdraw bitcoin, checking each withdrawal for rare sats. Occasionally, they win the lottery. Commingled bitcoin is a gold dirt pile Binance executives view satoshis as fungible. Its employees do not spend time scouring through its customers’ deposits for rare sats. From a giant commingled pile of bitcoin, Binance workers simply disburse sats for withdrawal requests, without regard for whether or not those bitcoin are ‘rare.’ For the average sats panner, Binance’s indiscretion is a digital gold mine. Anyone who can successfully deposit and withdraw from these commingled pools of bitcoins can hope they win the withdrawal lottery. With the downside risk being primarily the transactions fees and the unlikely yet alluring possibility of winning the lottery, the practice is a niche pastime in crypto. Sometimes, panners will check their withdrawal and discover a windfall. They just might list their lucky win on Magic Eden. Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.