Ordinals are not dead yet; Responsible for 85% of Bitcoin transactions
Despite recent suggestions that the hype surrounding Bitcoin non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has died down, Ordinals continue to dominate activity on the Bitcoin network. On August 21, nearly 85% of the network’s activity consisted of Ordinal inscriptions and BRC-20 token minting.
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Ordinals are not dead
Many in the crypto community were quick to call Ordinals dead, as collections lost over 90% of their value in the space of a few weeks. However, The report focused solely on the sales and trading volume of Bitcoin-based NFTs, overlooking the ongoing strong activity in terms of inscriptions, which remains high.
Developer “Leonidas” revealed that out of the 530,788 Bitcoin transactions recorded over the past 24 hours, 450,785 were related to Ordinals.
“In the midst of everyone claiming ‘Ordinals are dead’ they have literally accounted for 84.9% of the activity on Bitcoin,” said Leonidas.
Findings corroborated by Dune
Data from Dune Analytics supports this trend, revealing that on August 20, there were over 400,000 Ordinal inscriptions. Meanwhile, Bitinfocharts reports that the total daily Bitcoin transaction count was around 556,000. This means that more than three-quarters of the network activity on that day was Ordinals-related.
According to Dune Analytics, there have been 25.5 million Ordinal inscriptions, generating $53.4 million in fees on the Bitcoin network. Inscriptions are predominantly related to BRC-20 token minting, with 1.9 million of these tokens minted in the last week.
Resuming the expansion
Bitcoin NFTs were first launched in January, and the subsequent months saw a surge in the inscription craze as thousands were minted on the Bitcoin network. The popularity of the protocol is such that it almost overtook Ethereum. Nevertheless, not everyone is a fan of the protocol, as it has led to network congestion and a spike in transaction fees.
Despite the recent drop in Bitcoin’s price, Bitcoin NFTs have continued to thrive and prove they still have a significant presence in the crypto sphere. While several maximalists are Ordinals, the protocol continues to expand and recently announced a promising accelerator program to fund startups within the ecosystem.
