26.9 Bitcoins potentially have been "burned" by someone sending them to the earliest Bitcoin address, associated with Bitcoin inventor himself.

It is common to see small amounts symbolically sent into some of the largest Bitcoin addresses as a form of entertainment or sometimes even strange kind of cyber-begging - hoping for the alleged wealthy address owner to send something in return. It is not common when amount sent is multiple Bitcoins - in this case worth over $1.2 million.

What makes this transaction special is the fact that receiving address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa is the same that was used for receiving the first ever Bitcoin block reward, and, therefore, is believed to be associated with the person or entity behind the invention of Bitcoin - Satoshi Nakamoto.

Famously, most of the earliest Satoshi Nakamoto addresses have actually not spent any coins, and it is likely that private key for these addresses is either lost long time ago or the person owning them has passed away. Perhaps even both.

Sending Bitcoin to such address effectively becomes a "burning operation" - irreversible destruction of Bitcoin which results in shrinking of total amount of coins in circulation.

Whether by accident or with intent, some amount of Bitcoin is lost by sending to wrong address every day and it is considered normal and part of the deflationary nature of Bitcoin.