OrdinalsBitcoin Ordinals have hit a new all-time high, with the number of inscriptions on the BTC network reaching 58,179 on April 2, according to data from Dune Analytics. This figure represents an 83.5% increase from the previous all-time high of 31,692 recorded on March 9. The surge is attributed to the launch of a new “token standard” for the blockchain, known as the Bitcoin Request for Comment (BRC-20) tokens, by an anonymous on-chain analyst named Domo in early March.
Furthermore, the BRC-20 tokens use Ordinal inscriptions to create and transfer tokens on the Bitcoin network, similar to the popular ERC-20 standard on Ethereum.
The recent surge in Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin network has also been attributed to the Taproot soft fork, which took effect on November 14, 2021. Also, the soft fork enabled the introduction of Ordinals and the BRC-20 token standard on the network. Ordinals are digital artifacts similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can carry various forms of data, including text, images, PDFs, video, and audio formats. The BRC-20 tokens, on the other hand, utilize Ordinal inscriptions to create and transfer tokens on the network, similar to the popular ERC-20 token standard on Ethereum.
On April 2, 2023, the number of Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin network reached a new daily all-time high of 58,179, representing an 83.5% increase from the previous all-time high of 31,692 recorded on March 9. According to Leonidis.og, the host of an Ordinals-focused podcast, over 55,000 of the inscriptions on April 2 were text-based Ordinals, many of which were represented by BRC-20 tokens.
The surge in Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin network came on the back of the launch of new tools to interact with BRC-20 tokens, according to a tweet by Leonidis, the host of an Ordinals-focused podcast. Leonidis explained that the initial hype around BRC-20 tokens had died down, but the recent development of user-friendly tools had reignited interest in them. Leonidis emphasized the importance of user experience (UX) in driving adoption of blockchain-based technologies.
Some of the new tools for BRC-20 token interaction include Ord.io, UniSat Wallet, and BRC-20.io. Since the creation of the BRC-20 standard, BRC-20.io reports that 1,600 tokens have been created. The most popular BRC-20 tokens currently include “pepe,” “ordi,” and “punk,” which have respective market caps of $2.5 million, $2.1 million, and $900,000. This surge in interest in BRC-20 tokens highlights the growing demand for non-fungible digital artifacts on the Bitcoin network.
The demand for BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin network continues to surge, with over 42,700 tokens minted in the past 24 hours. The majority of these tokens were minted by popular projects such as wzrd, domo, BAYC, meme, and pups. Despite the current market cap of BRC-20 tokens being less than $10 million, Galaxy Digital, a digital asset investment firm, predicts that the “Bitcoin NFT” market may reach $4.5 billion by 2025.
However, the use of Ordinals on the Bitcoin network has generated some controversy within the Bitcoin community. While proponents such as Dan Held argue that Ordinals can offer more financial use cases on Bitcoin, others are concerned that it deviates from Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer cash system. As the debate continues, the popularity of BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals on the Bitcoin network continues to grow.
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