Bitcoin Ordinals Cross 7 Million Mark, Indian Web3 Insiders Say NFTs are Here to Stay

Bitcoin Ordinals, the up-and-coming category of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are exploding in popularity by the day. The number of Ordinal inscriptions exceeded the seven million mark earlier this week testifying the growing trend of Ordinal NFTs brewing in the global Web3 community. Miners, who validated Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, managed to collect fees worth BTC 1,324. At the point, when BTC is trading at $27,082 (roughly Rs. 22.3 lakh), the amount that Ordinal validators made comes to $35 million (roughly Rs. 288 crore).

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.

Between April 21 and May 15, the number of Bitcoin Ordinals spiked from 1.24 million to the current number of 7,204,882, Bitcoin.com reported on Wednesday, May 17 citing details from Dune Analytics. This means that in the last 25 days, the Ordinals inscription on the Bitcoin blockchain rose by a whopping 480 percent.

Speaking to Gadgets 360, Kameshwaran Elangovan, Co-Founder and COO at Guardianlink said that the enthusiastic market response to this innovation stands as a resounding endorsement, solidifying the undeniable future of NFTs.

“Bitcoin Ordinals is a revolutionary fusion that quietly emerged at just the right moment, merging the infinite possibilities of blockchain technology with the digital art world. With the advent of Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs, it ushers in a new era where scarcity and uniqueness merge on the blockchain, empowering individuals to truly own and trade digital assets,” said Elangovan.

The Dune Analytics data also highlighted that the sales of Ordinal NFTs generated profits by garnering a revenue of $93 million (roughly Rs. 765 crore).

Interestingly, most Ordinals inscriptions are formed as plain text rather than as JPEG images.

Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX told Gadgets 360 that Ordinals were created as a tool to ensure this transparency is maintained, implying that as the Ordinals category flourishes, the Bitcoin blockchain will become only more stable.

“For example, the transactions on a Bitcoin network can be counted based on their volume. But that doesn't indicate the order in which these transactions took place. However, if each transaction had a serial number, it would be easy to identify the right sequence of transactions. Say, there have been 5000 transactions on the network which can be figured out easily. But to ensure that all transactions have been in the right order, their serial numbers need to be matched with the sequence. That is an important aspect for validation of transactions and hence crucial for node operators,” Menon said.

“With Ordinals, each Satoshi, the lowest denomination in the BTC network can be inscribed with unique images, texts, etc. which are non-fungible. This, according to experts, creates a unique opportunity to build applications on Bitcoin with unique identifiers, which are secure. It is also being seen as a tool to build utility for the largest crypto by market cap which is seen as a store of value to a large extent.”

Ordinals garnered traction in the Web3 community after BAYC parent Yuga Labs announced its own Ordinal NFT collection called TwelveFold in March this year.

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 Ordinal NFTs.