'Epic sat' mined from fourth Bitcoin halving block sells for $2.1M

One satoshi is currently worth $0.00065 — but some sats hold inherent “collectible value” in the Bitcoin ecosystem, cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global explained.

An “epic sat” — an exceptionally rare satoshi mined from the fourth Bitcoin halving block — has sold for 33.3 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $2.13 million.

The sale of the satoshi — the smallest unit of Bitcoin — took place on cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global on April 25 — roughly five days after one of its partners, Bitcoin mining pool viaBTC, mined it in block 840,000 on April 20.

The auction, which commenced on April 22, saw 34 bids before an unidentified bidder won ownership rights to the epic sat — with “sat number 1,968,750,000,000,000.”

The next closest competitor bid 20 Bitcoin for the rare sat.

“The auction has concluded successfully, with the FIRST & ONLY epic sat selling for 33.3 $BTC (≈$2,134,000),” CoinEx posted to X on April 25.”

“This auction isn’t just a bidding event; it marked the community recognition, media attention, & widespread embrace of #Bitcoin.”

An epic sat refers to the first satoshi mined in the first new Bitcoin halving block. Given there’s been four halvings, only four of these rare sats exist.

These sats are allocated a unique sequence number under the Ordinals number system, which is based on mining timestamps.

As there are one hundred million sats in a Bitcoin, an ordinary satoshi is currently priced at $0.00065.

But certain sats have a special meaning within the Bitcoin ecosystem, CoinEx explained.

“Given that satoshis are assigned unique identifiers, they inherently possess higher collectible value. As periodic events occur within the Bitcoin network, some more frequently than others, scarcity is naturally promoted.”

Bitcoin Ordinals explorers like Ordiscan and OrdinalHub can be used to find out whether a Bitcoin wallet owns a rare sat by verifying the exact UTXO and output number. Users that own a rare sat can then transfer it to an Ordinals-supported wallet.

Related: El Salvador’s Bitcoin wallet gets sats, cats and a cypherpunk manifesto

ViaBTC mined the fourth halving block, block 840,000, at 12:09 am UTC on April 20.

It received the new block subsidy of 3.125 Bitcoin, in addition to an eye-popping 37.6 Bitcoin in reward fees, worth $2.4 million at the time.

The next Bitcoin halving event is expected to occur sometime in 2028 at block 1,050,000, which will see mining rewards halved to 1.5625 Bitcoin.

Big Questions: How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?