Toniq Labs, a company that builds tools and services for Web3, just announced the launch of Bioniq, a Bitcoin-based NFT marketplace on the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) blockchain. The new platform, which claims to be “the world’s fastest Bitcoin-based NFT marketplace,” comes with two goals: facilitating the buying and selling of Bitcoin NFTs and alleviating congestion on the Bitcoin network.
With the rise of Bitcoin Ordinals and speculative BRC-20 meme coins, the Bitcoin network recently surpassed Ethereum in gas fees for the first time since 2020. To date, BRC-20 tokens have passed $4 billion in value and over 42.5 million Ordinals have been minted. This is good news for NFT fans, but it has also has led to surging Bitcoin gas fees, resulting in NFT transactions on the network being more expensive than on Ethereum.
Toniq Labs, backed by VC firm Polychain Capital, aims to solve this problem with its user-friendly Bitcoin-based NFT marketplace. Here are some of its features:
- It has a built-in wallet with smart wallet features
- Users can login via their Gmail accounts by leveraging Web3Auth to manage their private keys
- Users can make adjustable offers on any Bitcoin NFT
- Creators can release Ordinals that can be sold first and inscribed at a later date
- It has smart-contract-based auction capability
Bioniq also makes use of the ICP’s native integration with Bitcoin, which enables users to trade digital assets within the networks ecosystem to avoid using centralized bridges. Furthermore, ICP is faster and cheaper than Bitcoin or Ethereum: It has zero network fees, and can finalize transactions in less than two seconds. It also has lower storage costs.
Additional features for the marketplace are being planned for the near future.
The Rise of Bitcoin Ordinals
When the Ordinals protocol dropped in January of this year and enabled users to inscribe data onto individual satoshis, it opened the Bitcoin network to the world of non-fungible tokens. While the project was unsurprisingly met with criticisms from Bitcoin maximalists, it’s led to a resurgence in NFT trading and a newfound utility for the world’s #1 cryptocurrency.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered dozens of articles this year about successful NFT projects on the Bitcoin blockchain. Here are some of the top headlines:
- 535 DeGods NFTs are Now Inscribed on Bitcoin
- Yuga Labs Nets $16.5M with Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Drop
- Magic Eden Launches Bitcoin Ordinals Marketplace
- Asprey, Bugatti Team Up for Luxury ‘Egg’ Ordinals Drop
- Bitcoin Ordinals & Meme Coins Reach All-Time Frenzy
- Binance to Add Support for Bitcoin Ordinals in Late May
- Ordinals Heat Up as Bitcoin Flips Ethereum in Trading Volume
For now, NFTs and meme coins seem to be the most popular things to inscribe on Bitcoin, but that could change. Bitcoin’s #1 proponent, Michael Saylor, has said in several interviews that Bitcoin could be used to store important documents like wills, land deeds, college diplomas, or anything that would benefit from being inscribed on the immutable, secure, decentralized network. While these use-cases haven’t caught on yet, it may be something to look for in the future.
As for Bioniq, it will take some time to see if the new marketplace is popular with users. But if it can lower gas fees and provide a secure and seamless experience for users to store and transact Bitcoin NFTs, we think there’s a good chance it will be. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll be on the lookout for any new updates to the story.