Bitcoin-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of Inscriptions are in the spotlight as the network halving event looms closer.
Data from CryptoSlam indicates that Bitcoin NFTs have dominated the market, representing 55% of total NFT trades observed over the past week. The trading volume of Bitcoin NFTs in the past week has outstripped that of Ethereum and Solana combined.
Bitcoin NFT sales surged by 96% during this period, reaching $176.8 million. Notably, four out of the top five best-selling NFT collections for the week were based on Bitcoin Ordinals. Ethereum trailed with $62.2 million in sales, while Solana recorded $41.9 million.
Top trading Bitcoin NFTs
Uncategorized Ordinals led the sales, with over $55 million worth of digital assets sold in more than 53,000 transactions.
Ordinals enable users to embed files, such as images, into satoshis (sats), the smallest Bitcoin unit. Since its launch in January 2023, over 65 million inscriptions have been made on the network.
The meme coin PUPS is second, with sales exceeding $44 million, thanks to the anticipation of the upcoming Runes Protocol.
Furthermore, NodeMonkes and WZRD BRC-20 secured the third and fourth spots, each with over $10 million worth of trades.
What is driving volume?
DWF Ventures, a venture capital firm, attributed the exponential rise in Ordinals volume to the approaching Bitcoin halving event and the impending launch of the Runes Protocol.
The firm further explained that prominent NFTs such as NodeMonkes, BitcoinPuppets, and QuantumCatsXYZ drive this surge in Bitcoin NFTs volume.
The Bitcoin halving event, scheduled for April 20, will reduce miners’ rewards to 3.25 BTC.
On the other hand, the Runes Protocol aims to be the fungible counterpart of Ordinals. It utilizes the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model to facilitate the creation, naming, and transfer of digital commodities exclusively within the Bitcoin network.
Meanwhile, this growth coincides with Binance’s unexpected decision to cease support for Bitcoin NFTs on its platform.
However, NFT traders have swiftly migrated to other platforms like Magic Eden, where Bitcoin NFTs account for more than half of the total cross-chain volume, as reported by a Dune Analytics dashboard curated by Sealaunch.