Bitcoin, once viewed as solely a staid store of value, has completed its reinvention this year, becoming the No. 2 blockchain for non-fungible tokens according to the latest data from CryptoSlam. The 30-day statistics tell the full story:
- $170 million in sales
- Comparatively little wash trading compared to other blockchains
- 6,600 total buyers, indicating that Bitcoin NFTs fetch high prices
The $170 million in NFT sales puts it ahead of more established NFT blockchains like Solana, Mythos Chain, and Polygon, whose combined sales make up 70% of the total Bitcoin NFT sales for the 30-day period. Only Ethereum stands above Bitcoin, and while Ethereum NFT sales have decreased 27%, Bitcoin NFT sales have increased 399%.
Complementing statistics from Dune Analytics show the number of Bitcoin Ordinals inscribed in the past month has gone almost parabolic.
On April 21st there were just 1.3 million Ordinals ‘minted’ on the Bitcoin blockchain. Now, that number is 8.8 million. The rise in Ordinals has coincided with meme coin season and the launch of the BRC-20 protocol.
BRC-20, named after its counterpart on the Ethereum blockchain, allows individuals to inscribe tokens — in this case, meme coins — on the Bitcoin blockchain. It is a part of the Ordinals protocol, and the tokens may be considered NFTs even though they only contain text rather than images.
Top 5 Image-Based Collections and Meme Coins on Bitcoin
Bitcoin Ordinals collections are brand new, but they’ve already had an outsized impact on the realm of NFTs. Here is a quick list of the top five Ordinals collections by 30-day sales, courtesy of CryptoSlam:
| Collection | Sales ($) | Transactions | Buyers | Sellers |
| Space Pepes | $12.3 million | 2,325 | 1,172 | 1,699 |
| Bitcoin Frogs | $9.6 million | 6,230 | 2,939 | 2,335 |
| Naked Bitcoin Frog Misprints | $2.7 million | 2,761 | 1,264 | 993 |
| Pixel Pepes | $2.1 million | 416 | 276 | 351 |
| Bitcoin Punks | $1.7 million | 1,066 | 794 | 491 |
A quick analysis shows that Bitcoin NFT collections based on frogs are popular now. That may come as no surprise to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who know the power of the Pepe intimately. But along with the NFT collections come the BRC-20 meme coins.
The following table shows the top five meme coins by sales on the Bitcoin blockchain:
| Token | Sales ($) | Transactions | Buyers | Sellers |
| ORDI | $38.4 million | 23,804 | 8,087 | 3,159 |
| NALS | $6.8 million | 7,455 | 2,512 | 1,272 |
| VMPX | $6.4 million | 7,503 | 2,956 | 2,835 |
| PEPE | $3.8 million | 5,387 | 3,067 | 1,225 |
| DRAC | $3.0 million | 5,240 | 2,058 | 2,028 |
As the numbers show, BRC-20 meme coins are hot, as much, if not more so, than other Bitcoin Ordinals collections. But as Dune Analytics shows, that trend may be reversing. While BRC-20 tokens made up most Ordinals inscriptions in the past month, the ratio between them and image-based Ordinals is closing.
Bitcoin Ordinals: A Primer
Casey Rodamor, a Bitcoin developer, created the Ordinals protocol in January of 2023. At first, it went unnoticed, barely garnering any attention. But it’s starting to dominate the cryptocurrency space, turning the Bitcoin blockchain into a home for multimedia content, rather than a place solely for investors.
Under the Ordinals protocol, a person can inscribe (the term for ‘mint’ on the Bitcoin blockchain) a token with characteristics. These include applications, audio, video, text, images, models, or other forms of content. To inscribe, an individual must use “satoshis,” which is the smallest unit on Bitcoin.
Rodamor said he created the Ordinals protocol to help aid widespread Web3 adoption, as well as create goodwill for the space. But there was a more basic reason as well: to make Bitcoin fun again.
And, given the statistics, his hard work has certainly paid off. Here at Rarity Sniper, we’ll pay close attention to further developments in this story and report back as needed.
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