Despite rejection from Bitcoin purists, Ordinals – the NFT-like project on the Bitcoin blockchain – shows no signs of slowing down, as more than 76,400 listings have been created so far. The number of ordinals peaked on February 9, 2023, surpassing 20,800 listings for the day, according to data from Dunes.
Launched last month, ordinals is the latest project to integrate NFTs into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Considerationlaunched in 2014, was the first project to introduce non-fungible tokens into Bitcoin with the Rare Pepes collection, followed by the 2017 launch of Battery.
What sets Ordinals apart from previous projects is that digital assets are listed directly on satoshis, the smallest denomination of a bitcoin, without the need for a sidechain or token.
The developers have entered JPEGs, audio files, videos and even video games to test the limits of what can go on the Bitcoin blockchain. While the total number of Bitcoin NFTs is unknown, ordinals website and Gamma, a Bitcoin NFT market on Stacks, seem to point to several thousand hits on the network.
Bitcoin NFTs may be having a moment, but the technology is still in its infancy, especially compared to Ethereum and Solana, which have had several years to perfect minting, trading, and viewing digital collectibles.
“Ordinals have been live for a few months now, but it’s really only been a week in terms of mass adoption,” said Satoshibles developer Brian Laughlan. Decrypt on Discord. “It’s going to take some time before we see broad portfolio support.” Launched in 2021, satoshibles is the first NFT collection to link Ethereum NFTs with Bitcoin using Stacks.
As Bitcoin Twitter continues to promote the merits of filling blocks with images and videos, Bitcoin miners are raking in a tidal wave of fees that topped $92,220 on February 12, 2023, for ordinal transactions alone.
Unsurprisingly, clones of popular NFT projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have made their way to the Bitcoin Blockchain. On February 8, an Ordinal Punk single sold for 9.5 BTC, or almost $215,000.
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