BitMEX, a crypto derivatives firm, recently revealed that the number of Ordinals NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain has skyrocketed to 13,000 since their launch only two months ago. According to their latest blog post published Wednesday, these ordinals have consumed 526 megabytes (MB) of block space and cost creators 6.77 Bitcoin ($155K at current rates). The remarkable success of this new type of Non-Fungible Token is clear evidence that buzz about NFTs is surging quickly with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
When the total number of Ordinals transactions is represented graphically, it creates a steep “hockey stick” curve that demonstrates exponential growth in NFT activity on Bitcoin. Despite its growing popularity, some prominent figures such as Rene Pickhardt have voiced their opposition, stating that Ordinals are responsible for “spamming” the most dominant blockchain with oversized JPEGs.
Pickhardt and other naysayers have data to back their claims. On Wednesday, transactions involving Ordinals represented merely 3% of all Bitcoin trades yet took up almost 70% of the block space allocated for Bitcoin usage.
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