There’s no doubt that NFTs are popping right now. As Rarity Sniper covered yesterday, floor prices are rising, emboldened by an episode from The Simpsons this past Sunday and some announcements from top collections. Now, Ordinals are getting involved. For the first time, Bitcoin has flipped Ethereum in NFT trading volume, amassing an impressive $17 million in sales in 24 hours, a rise of 19%.
This beats Ethereum’s sales total of $15 million during the same period. The blockchain most known for NFTs saw an impressive rise in sales of 6%, good enough for the No. 2 spot, ahead of Solana, Mythos Chain, and Immutable X. According to the statistics on CryptoSlam, the rise of Bitcoin’s NFT trading volume lies not in frog collections or the more classic version of NFTs.
Instead, the jump comes from the BRC-20 standard, which are still considered Ordinals but are more likely to be called meme coins. $SATS and $RATS, two BRC-20 collections, are in the top three NFT collections for the 24-hour period, with Bored Ape Yacht Club sandwiched between them. $CATS, another BRC-20, is ranked No. 9, and other Ordinals (as a group) are ranked No. 8.
According to reports, the Ordinals community has slowly been building during a slow period throughout the summer, even as most of the NFT collections on all chains have seen a drop in trading volume. This month, that hard work may be paying off.
Since the beginning of November, Bitcoin has racked up an impressive $59 million in NFT sales, which places it higher than the total for the past three months combined. There has also been a significant drop in wash trading, which are fictious trades that are made to seem authentic. Could a bull run be approaching? Time will tell, but this is certainly a good sign.
Ordinals Makes News in 2023
Ordinals, created by Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor, saw little attention throughout the early months of 2023. But when it rose to prominence, it did so in a big way, becoming the talk of the NFT landscape in April and May. Here are three stories we covered about Ordinals from that period.
First, in late May, Binance announced it would announce support for Ordinals on its NFT marketplace. The move underscored the popularity of Bitcoin NFTs, with over 5 million inscribed on the chain at the time. Binance’s Head of Product said that Bitcoin is the OG of crypto and things were just getting started in the Ordinals space.
Next, around that same period, Bitcoin Ordinals reached an all-time frenzy with the debut of the BRC-20 standard, which allowed for the creation of meme coins on the chain. The traffic on Bitcoin caused network congestion and miner’s fees to shoot through the roof. The launch of BRC-20 coincided with the general meme coin season, which had engulfed other chains.
Lastly, seven months ago, Magic Eden proved its worth as the leading cross-chain NFT marketplace by creating a Bitcoin Ordinals launchpad. The debut of the new platform occurred on April 7th, just weeks after Ordinals were starting to make into the mainstream crypto space. According to a press release at the time, the new launchpad would give Ordinals creators a safe and secure platform to launch their collections.
As these stories show, Ordinals took the crypto world by storm just a few months ago. Now, after a period of quiet building, it appears to be back, a nice sign for Web3 denizens. Rarity Sniper will look out for any developments in the story and update this article if needed.