What is $BIT

$BIT is the Bitcoin-native fungible token of the bits field — the protocol-defined difficulty target that exists in every block.

A token of the bits field

$BIT is a TAP-protocol DMT token whose supply is mined from the integer value of the bits field of Bitcoin blocks. Every Bitcoin block — from genesis to the current tip — carries one bits field in its header, and each block is eligible to mint $BIT exactly once.

Once a block has been claimed by a valid mint inscription, it is claimed forever. There is no reissue, no second chance, no admin override. The set of mintable blocks is the set of Bitcoin blocks that exist; the set of claimed blocks grows monotonically as people inscribe.

Why "BIT"

The name has three layers of meaning, and they all align:

The field name. bits is a literal field in the Bitcoin block header — the difficulty encoding that every node parses on every block.
The etymological root. The Bitcoin whitepaper coins the word from bit + coin. "Bit" predates "Bitcoin"; it is what Bitcoin is built out of.
The unit of information. Per Shannon, a bit is the smallest possible unit of information. Bitcoin is a chain of bits. $BIT is a token of that chain.

What it is not

Not a layer-2 token. $BIT lives on Bitcoin L1 as Ordinals inscriptions.
Not wrapped, bridged, or pegged. There is no off-chain custodian and no cross-chain mirror.
Not a presale or ICO. There is no team allocation, no pre-mine, no fundraising round.
Not a memecoin in the disposable sense. The supply is a function of Bitcoin's chain data, not a marketing decision.

$BIT is an Ordinals-native fungible token deployed through TAP Protocol, with supply derived deterministically from Bitcoin block headers.

How it relates to DMT

DMT — Digital Matter Theory — is a Bitcoin-native framework for tokens whose supply is derived from Bitcoin block data rather than being chosen by a team. DMT was first deployed in 2023 and defines a registry of "elements," each pointing at a specific field inside a block. A DMT token is minted by inscribing a TAP dmt-mint ordinal that references a target block; the mint quantity is computed from that block's data at the chosen field.

$BIT is a DMT token, and the field it references is bits — element 11 in the DMT registry. For the framework itself, see Digital Matter Theory.

The bits field

What bits is, how it's encoded, and why DMT picks it.

Mint spec

The exact TAP payload to inscribe a $BIT mint.