NFT
The number of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) linked to the Bitcoin blockchain surged past 3 million earlier this week after a one-day spike in activity consisting mostly of text-based assets, data from Dune Analytics shows.
The tokens, called inscriptions, operate on the Ordinals Protocol, which allows users to embed data into the Bitcoin blockchain by writing references to digital art in small Bitcoin-based transactions.
The jump follows the introduction of the Bitcoin Request for Comment (BRC-20) token standard, which allows users to issue transferable tokens directly over the network. That led to a collection of digital artwork and meme tokens built on Bitcoin. Market cap of the latter category rose to $137 million on Tuesday.
Yet most inscriptions are text-based, data shows. These cost much less than digital art or meme coins because network costs depend on the amount of data recorded.
As of Monday, there were more than 372,000 unique entries on the Bitcoin blockchain, of which 371,000 were text-based. Only 316 image-based inscriptions were created, the rest being applications or tokens.
Creators paid a cumulative 28 bitcoin (BTC) in fees for creating the inscriptions, adding to the nearly 284 bitcoin in lifetime fees generated from Ordinals activity. That’s over $8 million at current prices.
Meanwhile, tokens aimed at leveraging Bitcoin’s ecosystem rose in price as subscriptions rose.
Stacks’ stx (STX) tokens are up more than 12% in the past 24 hours, outperforming the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which tracks the broader crypto market, gaining just 1.2%.
Stacks is a so-called layer 2 companion chain for smart contracts focused on bitcoin, which allows the creation of related financial products. Crypto funds like North Rock say Stacks offers several advantages over blockchain platforms like Ethereum, including lower fees, faster transaction times, and improved security.