Bitcoin scan finds 96,000 fake-address outputs filling the UTXO set
Bitcoin node database clogged by fake-address outputs
Bitquery scanned Bitcoin’s blockchain and discovered 96,231 outputs that contain readable text where an address hash should be. These “fake‑address” outputs stay in the unspent transaction output (UTXO) set, which nodes keep to check spendable coins.
Key numbers
- 13,062 OP_RETURN transactions (data that is only stored in block history)
- 96,231 fake‑address outputs, holding roughly 3.2 BTC that cannot be spent
- Scan covered 965,135 blocks up to September 2 2026
What the scan shows
OP_RETURN data is recorded in the block chain but does not create a UTXO entry, so it does not increase node storage for spendable coins. Fake‑address outputs, however, look spendable to a node because they occupy the space normally used for an address hash. No private key matches the embedded text, so the coins are effectively locked.
Confirmed facts
- Bitquery counted 13,062 OP_RETURN taunt transactions and 96,231 fake‑address outputs.
- The fake‑address outputs represent about 3.2 BTC that remains unspendable.
- Bitcoin Core 30.0, released in October 2025, raised the default data‑carrier size limit to 100,000 bytes and allowed multiple OP_RETURN outputs.
- The March 21‑26 2026 campaign that mentioned developer Luke Dashjr produced the 13,062 OP_RETURN transactions.
Unclear points
- The scan cannot prove that Bitcoin Core 30.0 alone caused the rise in longer OP_RETURN messages.
- Coinbase fields for 191,427 historical blocks were missing, and witness inscriptions were not counted, so the total amount of embedded text may be higher.
Why it matters for Bitcoin nodes
Fake‑address outputs increase the size of the UTXO set, which every node must keep in memory. A larger UTXO set can slow down node operation and raise hardware requirements. In contrast, OP_RETURN data only enlarges the block archive.
Sources
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