Fresh off its $1 million migration to the Bitcoin blockchain, the OnChainMonkey Ordinals project has completed one of its largest sales to date:
The artwork, which was announced on Wednesday and is part of the OCM Dimensions collection unveiled in June, sought to demonstrate the unique properties of Bitcoin Ordinals compared to less secure crypto NFTs.
For example, the 300 OCM Dimensions Ordinals were minted on 300 consecutive satoshis, using the numbering system defined by the Ordinals protocol. Furthermore, the first 300 ordinal numbers were engraved on satoshis mined in Block 78, one of the oldest Bitcoin blocks that saw the value it unlocked trading on the public market.
According to social media posts, the buyer was identified as crypto venture capitalist Jason Fang.
Beyond the sales figures, the Ordinal’s sales demonstrate the increasing appeal of Bitcoin Ordinals, a unique type of digital collectible that has gained traction as an alternative to traditional crypto NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Unlike NFTs, Bitcoin ordinal numbers are stored on Bitcoin’s own blockchain and are often considered more secure because they are stored directly by Bitcoin nodes.
The OCM project is derided by opponents as a waste of Bitcoin’s valuable block space and states that this project is proof that Ordinals projects can be responsible users of this resource, with the use of the recursion technique that helps reduce the data that are needed to store even programmable art. . (Due to the way the Bitcoin Ordinals project works, all Ordinals are stored by all Bitcoin nodes).
As such, public figures within the Ordinals space have weighed in on the sale, including Leonidas, who wrote on X: “Ordinals are dead. Long live Ordinals.”
Leonidas’ statement reflects the idea that Bitcoin Ordinals has become extinct due to declining sales since the coin’s massive surge earlier this year.
Still, the sale provides evidence that the Ordinals market can yet challenge the broader NFT space. While crypto NFTs remain popular, ordinals are emerging as an alternative because they are intrinsically tied to the most secure blockchain network in existence.
