Bitcoin-Based Ordinals NFTs Surge in Sales; Ethereum Retains Top Spot as Digital Collectibles Host

Ethereum, for the longest time, has remained the top blockchain of choice for digital artists and NFT creators to host their Web3 content on. The Bitcoin blockchain is now picking pace in competing with Ethereum to make a significant mark on the NFT sector. Over the last month, the sales of NFTs based on Bitcoin marked a significant surge. With this, the Bitcoin blockchain became second on the list naming top blockchains to have emerged in the recent times, with Ethereum leading the list.

Bitcoin-backed NFTs managed to garner around $173.28 million (roughly Rs. 1,433 crore) in revenue in the last thirty days, a report by Bitcoin.com said, citing CryptoSlam.IO insights.

An energy intensive proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain, Bitcoin specially supports the Ordinals category of NFTs. When an NFT is inscribed on one Satoshi unit of the Bitcoin blockchain, it gets classified as an Ordinal NFT. Satoshi, named after Bitcoin's anonymous creator, is the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.

The Ordinals classification of NFTs is an up-and-coming category of NFTs that exploded in popularity after BAYC parent Yuga Labs announced its own Ordinals NFT collection called TwelveFold in March this year.

BTC miners, who validated Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, managed to collect fees worth BTC 1,495 as of May 24. At a point, when BTC is trading at $26,077 (roughly Rs. 21.5 lakh), the amount that Ordinals validators made comes to $40.2 million (roughly Rs. 332 crore).

Nine out of the highest valued NFTs sold in recent weeks were supported by the Bitcoin blockchain.

Ordinals NFT collections like Space Pepes, Bitcoin Frogs, and $NALS NFTs reportedly managed to fetch $12.2 million (roughly Rs. 101 crore), $9.8 million (roughly Rs. 81 crore), and $6.8 million (roughly Rs. 563 million), respectively.

With these staggering revenue collections via Ordinals NFTs, Bitcoin has surpassed usually preferred blockchains like Polygon and Solana in terms of capturing the digital collectibles market share.

As opposed to Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana — all of which are eco-friendly and green blockchains, Bitcoin is an energy-intensive blockchain that requires loads of electricity and advanced computers for miners to validate transactions and add newer blocks to the blockchain.

In recent weeks, NFT marketplaces like Binance NFT and Magic Eden have added support for the trade and sale of Ordinals NFTs. The OKX crypto exchange is also reportedly planning to debut its NFT marketplace that will support Ordinals NFTs.

Meanwhile, Ethereum continues to be the reigning regent of the NFT kingdom.

Ethereum-based NFT sales bagged a whopping $392 million (roughly Rs. 3,245 crore) in the last 30 days.

Solana and Polygon NFTs, on the other hand, managed to pull in $53.7 million (roughly Rs. 444 crore) and $27 million (roughly Rs. 223 crore) in sales over the last month.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.