- Magic Eden on Bitcoin suspends trading in BRC-20.
- BRC-20 transactions and ordinal numbers have declined in recent weeks.
The rise of Ordinal Inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens created a lot of excitement within Bitcoin [BTC] community, leading to higher revenues for miners due to higher transaction fees.
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Nevertheless, the influence of these Bitcoin innovations appears to be waning, as a major marketplace has temporarily halted trading of BRC-20 tokens.
BRC-20 trading suspended
In a major announcement on October 22, Magical Eden on Bitcoin unveiled a temporary suspension of trading in BRC-20. The platform explained that this suspension is a precautionary measure to protect users pending a full consensus on ordinal numbers.
Ordinals Inscriptions became possible thanks to the November 2021 Taproot upgrade and serve as the underlying technology for BRC-20’s functionality.
BRC-20 tokens rely on JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) Ordinals Inscriptions for executing token contracts, generating new tokens, and transferring tokens.
These innovations had previously contributed to higher BTC transaction fees, but the current landscape appears to be evolving.
BRC-20 transactions are declining
Dates of Dune Analytics reveals that BRC-20 saw an impressive peak of 400,000 transactions in September. In that same month, BRC-20 transactions accounted for more than 60% of total BTC transactions. Furthermore, the volume of these transactions contributed to more than 30% of the fees collected by the Bitcoin network.
Source: Dune Analytics
However, the situation has changed drastically at this point. The total number of BRC-20 transactions has decreased to approximately 1,000, which represents less than 2% of total BTC transactions.
Furthermore, the contribution of BRC-20 transactions to BTC fees has fallen to less than 1%. Unfortunately, Ordinal Inscriptions hasn’t fared any better in this regard.
Daily Ordinal Numbers Inscriptions decrease with cost
Dune Analytics data showed that ordinal inscriptions have also experienced a significant decline. In September, daily inscriptions reached an impressive peak of over 400,000.
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However, currently daily inscriptions have dropped to less than 6,000. Furthermore, the fees paid for these inscriptions have dropped significantly, from around 8 BTC in September to less than 1 BTC.
Source: Dune Analytics
The decline in the number of BRC-20 and Ordinals inscriptions, as illustrated by Dune Analytics statistics, suggests that Magic Eden’s decision may have been part of a larger trend. However, in the coming days and weeks we will see to what extent their influence has completely diminished.