According to Dune Analytics, Bitcoin ordinal inscriptions have hit a milestone of over 10 million inscriptions. However, success has not prevented the protocol’s creator from stepping down from leadership.

Quick Takes: 

• Bitcoin ordinal inscriptions surpass 10 million inscriptions.
• The creator of the Ordinals protocol, Casey Rodarmor, steps down from his position, handing it over to “@Raphjaph“.
• BRC-20 tokens experience a significant market explosion, with a total market capitalization of $433 million.

Bitcoin Ordinals Spike During Leadership Transition

Casey Rodarmor introduced the Ordinals protocol in January 2023, suddenly emerging as a preferred method to inscribe data on the Bitcoin network. Nonetheless, Rodarmor recently took the plunge to step down from leading the protocol, giving the reins to the anonymous programmer “@Raphjaph” due to being unable to provide “ord” the attention it deserves.

However, leadership isn’t an issue regarding success. Bitcoin inscriptions have collectively generated a whopping $44.3 million (1,593 BTC) in transaction fees, with the BRC-20 token standard playing a significant role in the prices, accounting for more than 80% of the total ordinal inscriptions.

This month, the Bitcoin network faced a heavy burden when ordinal inscriptions activity soared steeply, hitting a peak of 40,000 on May 7 and 8. As a result, the blockchain network experienced increased pressure, causing transaction fees to skyrocket and the mempool to overflow with pending transactions.

Despite this spike, Bitcoin proved its resilience by processing transactions with ten-minute block times and upholding block sizes under 2 MB. Luckily, 91% of inscriptions are text-based, as revealed by Dune Analytics, significantly aiding in managing block sizes due to having a smaller footprint than video or image-based inscriptions.

The Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr recommends a “bug fix” is in order, to filter out ordinal-related transactions. A significant amount of ordinal inscriptions is labeled network spam, but this protocol continues to remain robust nevertheless.

BRC-20’s Market Explosion

On the other hand, the total market capitalization of all related BRC-20 tokens has hit $433 million, as per BRC-20.io. The past 24 hours alone saw a trading volume of $207 million, with the ORDI token holding a 55% share of the total market capital for this digital asset.

The amount of BRC-20 tokens has seen a remarkable rise since launching in early March, with the current total price being 24,677. Tokens, such as frog-themed memecoin PEPE, caused significant price fluctuations, adding a layer of intrigue alongside substantial volatility to the landscape of NFTs and cryptocurrency.

While observing the surge of Bitcoin ordinal inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens, it’s clear that the NFT and cryptocurrency landscape unceasingly varies, offering new opportunities and challenges alike.

According to experts, Bitcoin NFTs will reach a whopping $4.5 billion by 2025.

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