According to market intelligence providers at Messari, Bitcoin’s Ordinal NFTs saw exponential growth of 300 times the original value in the middle of January, despite recent controversy surrounding Bitcoin NFTs.
Messari reported that the network fees for Ordinal NFTs experienced a 25 per cent growth throughout the month. Some Ordinals, like an Ordinal Punks NFT, sold for 9.5 Bitcoin (BTC) on Thursday, approximately equivalent to $214,000.
1/ If we told you #Bitcoin NFTs were making waves in the sector would you believe us?
The New #Ordinals NFT project on Bitcoin is attempting to challenge the longstanding debate that the blockchain should primarily be used for simple financial transactions. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/2O0jHjzRLZ
— Messari (@MessariCrypto) February 9, 2023
Ordinal NFTs were proposed to Bitcoin developers in February 2022. These Bitcoin NFTs link individual units of Bitcoin — called Satoshi — to NFT media by assigning them ordinal numbers. These linked assets are referred to as inscriptions.
This process allows the Ordinal NFTs to be stored on Bitcoin’s blockchain, opening up new functions and opportunities for Bitcoin. However, many in the crypto community argued it would be against Bitcoin’s use as a financial currency.
Bitcoin analyst from Swan Bitcoin, Sam Callahan, pointed out the risks of Ordinal NFT inscriptions in Bitcoin’s economic transactions.
“In the long term, if demand for these inscriptions proves to be long lasting, there is a risk that these inscriptions could impact other Bitcoin use cases,” Callahan said.
Purpose of Bitcoin
Many critics of Ordinals and other non-financial transaction-related Bitcoin developments point to Bitcoin inventor Nakamoto Satoshi’s adage in 2010, regarding the purpose of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin developers considered adding a domain name system (DNS) to Bitcoin technology, as an expansion of the coin’s original purpose. However, Nakamoto was strongly against the idea.
“Piling every proof-of-work quorum system in the world into one dataset doesn’t scale,” Nakamoto said.
Nakamoto’s statement was seen as a final say on the purpose of Bitcoin. However, Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor remarked on the evolving nature of Bitcoin.
“It has really transcended the intentions of its creator,” Rodarmor said.
The rise of Ordinals NFTs has also opened up more possibilities for miners in the community. Bitcoin miners saw increased revenue after the Ordinals spike, and the market is expected to grow further soon.