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"Unavailable balance" is one of the most common UniSat complaints. Here's why.

ТUZE Moon — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:49:51 +0000

If part of your Bitcoin shows up as "unavailable" in UniSat and you feel like you have hit some rare edge case, you have not. This is one of the most repeated questions in the ordinals world, and the reason it keeps happening is baked into how these wallets work.

How common is it, really

Search "unavailable balance" inside UniSat's own community channels and you will find it asked over and over, month after month, straight through the most recent year. The same question shows up again and again on r/BitcoinOrdinals and in wallet support threads. It is not a one-off bug report. It is a steady stream of people discovering that a chunk of their BTC has quietly become un-spendable.

The phrasing is almost always the same:

"I have unlocked all my UTXOs, so why do I still have unavailable balance showing in my UniSat?"

"Where can I find real info on unavailable balance? The link in the FAQ says the page is not found."

Different people, same wall. And the standard answer they get is almost always the same too: open a support ticket, or go check your UTXOs manually. There is no button that just fixes it.

Why it hits so many people

The mechanism is simple and unavoidable. Every rune or inscription you mint lands on its own tiny output, usually around 546 satoshis. Ordinals-aware wallets lock any output carrying a collectible so you do not spend it as a fee. The plain BTC trapped inside those outputs then shows as "unavailable balance". We wrote up the full mechanism here: why your UniSat wallet shows "unavailable balance".

So anyone who farmed the UniSat airdrop, minted a batch of runes, or traded inscriptions ends up with dozens or hundreds of these locked dust outputs. The more active you were, the more BTC ends up frozen in plain sight. That is why it is not a niche problem: it is the default outcome of using the wallet the way it was meant to be used.

Why so much of it just sits there

Here is the part worth saying plainly. A lot of this BTC never gets recovered, and not because it cannot be. It stays stuck because:

There is no one-click recovery in the wallet. The advice is "open a ticket."
Doing it by hand means building a raw transaction and ordering inscribed inputs correctly, which most people will not do.
Many people assume "unavailable" means "lost" and quietly give up.

None of that is true. The outputs are ordinary spendable Bitcoin. The wallet is simply choosing not to spend them for you.

We cannot put an exact dollar figure on how much BTC is sitting locked this way, because that would mean scanning every affected wallet. But per person it ranges from a few dollars of dust up to real amounts for heavy airdrop farmers, and there are clearly a lot of those people.

How to actually get it out

You have two honest options, and the manual one is free:

By hand. Build a transaction that spends the locked UTXOs, put the inscribed inputs first so a collectible does not land in the fee, and send the freed BTC to an exchange or a plain wallet like Electrum or Sparrow. Full walkthrough: how to spend an inscription or rune UTXO.
With a tool. Sat Rescue builds that sweep transaction for you. You connect read only, it separates collectibles from plain dust, and your own wallet shows you the transaction to sign. Keys never reach the site.

It is open source, so you can read exactly what it does first: github.com/OculusMans/sat-rescue. It charges 17% of what it recovers, shown in your wallet before you sign, and skips the fee on amounts too small to matter. If you send the freed sats to another ordinals wallet they just lock again, so send to a plain wallet or an exchange.

FAQ

Is unavailable balance a common problem? Very. It is one of the most repeated questions in UniSat's own community and on ordinals forums, because anyone who mints runes or inscriptions runs into it.

Why do so many people leave the BTC stuck? There is no one-click fix in the wallet, the standard advice is to open a support ticket, and many people assume the coins are lost or not worth the hassle.

Can I get my unavailable balance out myself? Yes. The outputs are spendable; the wallet just will not spend them for you. Sweep them by hand or with a tool and send the freed BTC to a plain wallet or exchange.

Originally published at satrescue.app.

How to spend a UTXO that has an inscription or rune on it (without burning it)

ТUZE Moon — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:48:18 +0000

A UTXO that carries an inscription or a rune is a normal Bitcoin output. It is spendable. Your wallet just refuses to spend it for you, so the plain sats behind it sit there as "unavailable balance". Here is how to move them yourself without destroying the collectible.

A 30-second recap of ordinal theory

Ordinal theory tracks individual satoshis by the order they were mined. An inscription attaches data to a specific sat; a rune marks a balance tied to specific outputs. In both cases the thing you care about lives on one particular sat (or range of sats) sitting inside one particular UTXO, usually a tiny one around 546 satoshis.

So "an inscription UTXO" is just a regular output that happens to hold a sat someone considers special. Spend the output carelessly and that sat can end up paid to a miner as a fee. That is the whole danger, and the whole reason wallets lock these.

Why the wallet won't just spend it

Ordinals-aware wallets (UniSat, Xverse and others) lock any output carrying a collectible so you do not accidentally spend it as a network fee. The protection is reasonable. The side effect is that the plain BTC in those outputs is frozen behind the collectible, and the normal Send flow will not touch it. For the full picture of that lock, see why UniSat shows "unavailable balance".

The rule that keeps the collectible safe

When you spend an inscribed UTXO, Bitcoin assigns the sats to outputs in order. The sats from the first input flow into the first output, and so on, with whatever is left over going to the fee. So the trick is simple:

Put the input that carries the collectible first.
Make the first output big enough to receive those collectible sats, pointed at an address you control.
Everything after that is plain BTC you can send wherever you like.

Get that order right and the collectible lands safely in your own output. Get it wrong and it can be swept into the miner fee and lost for good.

Doing it by hand, step by step

Find the UTXO and what it carries. Get the exact txid:vout and check on an ordinals explorer where the inscription or rune sits inside the output.
Order the inscribed input first. In your PSBT, that input is input #0.
Size the first output to hold the collectible. Send those sats to an address you own. Then add a second output for the freed plain BTC.
Pick where the plain BTC goes. An exchange deposit address or a plain wallet like Electrum, Sparrow or Ledger.
Review and sign. Check every input and output amount, then sign and broadcast.

Important: if you send the freed sats to another ordinals wallet (UniSat, Xverse), they get locked again as unavailable balance. To treat them as plain Bitcoin, send to a non-ordinals wallet or an exchange.

Tools that will build this kind of transaction

Sparrow and Electrum, pointed at your address, can construct plain-BTC sweeps, though you have to be careful with input ordering and output sizing yourself. Across one UTXO it is manageable. Across dozens or hundreds of dust outputs it gets error prone fast, and one slip can cost a collectible.

Letting a tool handle the assembly

If you would rather not line up inputs and outputs by hand, Sat Rescue does exactly this part: it reads your UTXOs, separates the inscription and rune outputs from plain dust, orders the inputs so collectibles stay segregated, and builds the sweep transaction. You connect read only, your wallet shows you the transaction, and you sign it yourself. Keys never reach the site.

It is open source, so you can read the input-ordering logic before trusting it: github.com/OculusMans/sat-rescue. It takes a 17% fee on what it recovers, shown in your wallet before you sign, and skips the fee on amounts too small to matter. The manual route above is always free.

FAQ

Is a UTXO with an inscription actually spendable? Yes. On the blockchain it is an ordinary output. Ordinals wallets just choose not to spend it so you do not lose the collectible by accident.

What happens if I get the input order wrong? The collectible sats can land in the miner fee or in the wrong output and be lost. That is why the inscribed input goes first and the first output is sized to carry it.

Can I just send it to another ordinals wallet? You can, but it will be locked there again as unavailable balance. To treat the freed sats as plain BTC, send them to an exchange or a non-ordinals wallet.

Originally published at satrescue.app.

Why your UniSat wallet shows "unavailable balance" (and how to get that BTC out)

ТUZE Moon — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:33:51 +0000

If you opened UniSat (or Xverse, or another ordinals wallet) and part of your Bitcoin shows up as "unavailable" and the Send button won't touch it, you are not alone and your coins are not lost. This post explains exactly what is happening and how to move that BTC, both by hand and with a tool.

What "unavailable balance" actually means

Every time you mint a rune or an inscription, it lands on a specific tiny output in your wallet, usually around 546 satoshis. That output now carries a collectible.

Ordinals-aware wallets deliberately lock any output that carries an inscription or a rune. The reason is protective: they don't want you to accidentally spend a valuable collectible as a network fee. The side effect is that the plain Bitcoin value sitting inside those outputs gets grouped as "unavailable balance", and the normal Send flow refuses to spend it.

So the coins are yours, you can see them, but the wallet UI will not move them. For people who farmed the UniSat airdrop or minted a lot of runes, this can add up to a real amount of BTC frozen in plain sight across dozens or hundreds of tiny outputs.

Is it recoverable? Yes.

Nothing is stuck on the blockchain. The outputs are spendable like any other, the wallet is just choosing not to spend them for you. You have two ways to get the BTC out.

Option A: do it by hand (free)

If you are comfortable with raw transactions, you can sweep these outputs yourself:

List the locked UTXOs on your address using a block explorer or your wallet's UTXO view.
Build a transaction (a PSBT) that spends them.
Order the inputs that carry inscriptions first, and size the first output so the collectible sats land there, not in the miner fee or the wrong output.
Sign with a wallet that will build this kind of transaction. Sparrow or Electrum, pointed at your address, work for plain-BTC sweeps.

One important detail: if you send the swept sats to another ordinals-aware wallet (UniSat, Xverse), they get locked again there. To treat them as plain Bitcoin, send to an exchange deposit address or a plain wallet like Electrum, Sparrow, or Ledger.

Across a lot of dust outputs this is fiddly and easy to get wrong, which is why most people leave the BTC sitting there.

Option B: use a tool that does the assembly

If you don't want to build PSBTs by hand, Sat Rescue automates it:

You connect your wallet. It reads your address and public key only (read only).
It scans your UTXOs, separates the inscription and rune outputs from plain dust, and builds the sweep transaction.
You pick a mode: keep the clean BTC in your own wallet (collectibles stay segregated in a single output), or send everything to an external address like an exchange.
Your wallet shows you the transaction and you sign it. The site never sees your keys.

It is open source, so you can read exactly what it does before you connect anything: github.com/OculusMans/sat-rescue. It takes a 17% fee on what it recovers, shown in your wallet before you sign, and it skips the fee entirely on amounts too small to be worth it.

Do it while network fees are low

Consolidating many tiny outputs costs network fees per output. While fees are low this is cheap. When fees spike, sweeping small dust can cost more than it recovers. If you have been putting this off, low-fee periods are the time to do it.

FAQ

Will I lose my inscriptions or runes? No, unless you specifically choose a burn mode. The normal flow keeps your collectibles in a separate output on your own address and only frees the plain BTC.

Is connecting my wallet safe? The tool is non-custodial and open source: it never receives your seed or private key, only a signature your own wallet produces, and you review the transaction before signing. As always, verify the code and the transaction yourself.

Why does the wallet lock these in the first place? To stop you from accidentally spending a collectible as a fee. It is a safety feature with an annoying side effect.

Originally published at satrescue.app.