Over the past few days, Bitcoin has been adopting various functionalities that were previously associated with the Ethereum blockchain. One such innovation is the creation of new tokens and the generation of non-fungible token (NFT) assets. As a result, there has been a surge in Ordinal inscriptions, causing the BRC20 token economy to grow significantly. In just four days, over 10,000 additional coins have been issued, and as of May 16, 2023, at 10:43 a.m. Eastern Time, the BRC20 token economy was valued at $497.75 million.
The BRC20 token economy comprises 24,677 distinct tokens, with ORDI (ORDI) token currently commanding the largest market valuation of $342 million. However, the MEME token, valued at $94.68 per coin, and the OSHI token, valued at $477.50 per unit, surpass ORDI in individual worth. Both MEME and OSHI have considerably smaller supplies compared to the abundance of ORDI (21M), making them more scarce.
Related articles
In parallel to the surge in Ordinal inscriptions, there has been a convergence of surges in BRC20 transactions and Bitcoin’s backlog. The PUNK token boasts a value of $243 per coin, while the GOLD token holds a trading price of $19.82 per unit. Over the last 24 hours, a total of $206,705,219 in BRC20 trade volume has been generated, with ORDI trades accounting for $197.88 million of that sum. The remaining BRC20 token markets observe trade volumes of $930,485 or even less during the same time frame.
Data from Dune Analytics also shows that 5,906,735 BRC20 transactions have been successfully processed on-chain. Just like the spike in Ordinal inscriptions observed on May 7, a parallel surge in transaction fees for deploying, minting, and transferring BRC20s occurred alongside the Bitcoin network’s backlog of unconfirmed transactions.
It is interesting to note that just like Ordinal inscriptions, BRC20 tokens face a similar controversy stemming from Bitcoin maximalists wishing to confine Bitcoin’s blockchain to solely financial transactions. However, the wider market seems to embrace the trend, demanding its continuation and growth.
In conclusion, it is evident that the BRC20 token economy is experiencing significant growth, backed by the surge in Ordinal inscriptions and transaction activity. As Bitcoin continues to embrace functionalities that were previously associated with the Ethereum blockchain, it will be interesting to see how this growth and adoption of new tokens and NFT assets will shape the cryptocurrency market and attract more investors.
