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The quantity of Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin (BTC) network has experienced a significant surge, nearly doubling from 2.5 million to 4.78 million within the past eight days.
Initially, the Ordinals protocol was utilized for minting images as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but users soon discovered that text-based inscriptions could also be employed to generate fungible tokens, akin to those created using the ERC-20 token standard on the Ethereum (ETH) network.
The cumulative number of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions since December 14. Source: Dune Analytics.
These text-based inscriptions, now recognized as the BRC-20 token standard, have been the primary driver behind the substantial increase in Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain.
As noted by Glassnode co-founder and CTO, Rafael Schultze-Kraft on Twitter, text-based inscriptions have become the most prevalent type of Ordinals inscription, with over 2.8 million text-based inscriptions recorded as of May 5.
8/ Indeed, text inscriptions are now the leading type of Ordinal inscription in the #Bitcoin network.
Text: 2.8M
Images: 650k
Video: 1.8k
Audio: 347
Other: 19k
Inscriptions dashboard: https://t.co/YKwAbthEXL pic.twitter.com/O12MZj0qLT— Rafael Schultze-Kraft (@n3ocortex) May 4, 2023
Recent statistics from the well-known blockchain data platform Dune Analytics indicate that since April 25, an overwhelming 99% of all new Ordinals inscriptions have been text-based.
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Ordinals inscriptions by type since December 14. Source: Dune Analytics.
A new tool enabling users to monitor BRC-20 tokens, named brc-20.io, reveals that there are currently 14,200 new tokens available on the Bitcoin blockchain. Among the most notable Bitcoin-based tokens are “ordi,” “nals,” and even a Bitcoin version of the well-known memecoin Pepe (PEPE), which is ranked third by total market capitalization.
The total number of BRC-20 tokens currently available. Source: brc20.io.
While the overall market capitalization of BRC-20 tokens is currently around the $700 million threshold, digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital suggests that the market for “Bitcoin NFTs” could reach $4.5 billion by 2025.
Related: Bitcoin Ordinals community debates fix after inscription validation bug
The recent growth of Ordinals has sparked ongoing discussions regarding their impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Some Bitcoin advocates, such as Dan Held, argue that Ordinals provide a broader range of financial applications for Bitcoin, while more traditional Bitcoin supporters contend that Ordinals deviate from Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision, which aimed for Bitcoin to function as an electronic, peer-to-peer cash system.
In the meantime, miners have benefited from a substantial increase in revenue due to the transaction fees associated with the surge of new activity on the network.
