Unknown Bitcoin User Inscribes Full U.S. Constitution On-Chain for About $83
An anonymous user broadcast a 44.4 KB Bitcoin transaction embedding the full text of the U.S. Constitution, paying about $83.41 in fees, according to on-chain reporting. The inscription is permanent and became possible after Bitcoin Core v30 removed the OP_RETURN size limit, reigniting debate over the network's purpose.
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The Transaction
An unidentified user broadcast a Bitcoin transaction on the evening of May 28 that writes the full text of the U.S. Constitution into the blockchain, beginning with "We the People of the United States." Bitcoin Magazine reported the transaction was confirmed at 8:25 p.m. UTC and cost 113,454 satoshis, about $83.41 in fees, and was processed by mining pool SpiderPool about 14 minutes after broadcast. Decrypt, citing a blockchain explorer, reported the same fee figure, so the cost is consistent across both accounts.
The size of the transaction is where the sources differ in emphasis rather than in fact. Bitcoin Magazine puts the transaction at 44.4 kilobytes. Decrypt uses the same figure and compares it with a typical transfer of about 0.01 BTC that registered at 227 bytes, roughly 0.5% of the inscription's size. By Decrypt's arithmetic, that simpler transfer cost about $17, around 20% of what the Constitution inscription cost, even though it was overpaying by more than 105 times.
How the Data Was Stored
The text sits in an OP_RETURN output, a script opcode that lets anyone attach arbitrary data to a transaction. Such outputs are provably unspendable, so they carry no bitcoin value and exist only to store information. For years the field was capped at 80 bytes, which limited it to hashes, timestamps and short messages.
That cap was removed in Bitcoin Core v30, released in mid-2025, which also dropped the rule allowing only one OP_RETURN per transaction. The sender used SegWit and Taproot features alongside the expanded field to fit the whole document into a single record. Bitcoin Magazine described this as one of the first high-profile uses of that new capacity.
Community Debate and Precedent
The removal of the byte limit has been contested among Bitcoin developers for months. Supporters argue it lets the network serve more use cases, while critics say it shifts the network's purpose from payments toward data storage. BIP-444, a pending proposal, would restore the old 83-byte cap, and its backers argue that unlimited data storage undermines Bitcoin's identity as a monetary network. Decrypt noted that the proposal is aimed at arbitrary data in general, not this transaction specifically.
Writing data to Bitcoin is not new. OpenTimestamps, DOCPROOF and Factom have anchored document hashes on-chain for years, and the Ordinals protocol, launched in 2023, inscribed images, audio and code into Taproot witness data. Both outlets point to the 2023 Ordinals surge, when the mempool reached its highest recorded level, as the most recent large-scale inscription boom. Decrypt also cites an inscription of a 2024 social media post from the compromised account of former SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler, which it says remains on-chain.
Attribution and Open Questions
Neither outlet identified the sender, and no party has publicly claimed the transaction or explained its purpose. Bitcoin Magazine describes the sender as leaving no traceable identity. Decrypt also draws a link to ConstitutionDAO, which raised more than $45 million in 2021 in an unsuccessful bid for a rare copy of the document at auction, though neither source suggests a connection to Thursday's transaction.
Why It Matters
For Traders
The inscription itself has no direct price channel, but the BIP-444 debate over block space could affect sentiment around network fee and capacity narratives.
For Investors
The episode highlights an unresolved governance question about whether Bitcoin's block space should prioritize monetary use or arbitrary data, which may shape long-term positioning.
For Builders
With the 80-byte cap gone in Bitcoin Core v30, applications storing data on-chain should plan for larger OP_RETURN payloads and watch whether BIP-444 restores the limit.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
