Bitcoin Fees Hit 2-Year High As BRC-20 Tokens Gain Steam

Abstract:

• The common price of sending a single transaction on Bitcoin’s blockchain soared to virtually $20, its highest level since April 2021.
• Evidently elevated demand for BTC blockchain area was triggered by heightened exercise on the Ordinals protocol and tokens issued utilizing the BRC-20 customary.
• Binance was pressured to halt BTC withdrawals twice on Sunday as community congestion peaked, though the crypto change later resumed operations after transferring $4.4 billion in belongings.

Bitcoin (BTC) transaction charges rose to their highest level in two years amid rising curiosity within the Ordinals protocol and demand for BRC-2O tokens issued on BTC’s blockchain.

Based on on-chain information, BTC transaction charges reached as excessive as $19.21, a two-year excessive. The price of sending a transaction on BTC’s blockchain has not climbed so excessive since April 2021 when charges skyrocketed to $62.

A drastic improve in meme tokens issued on Bitcoin’s community together with a pointy climb in Ordinals exercise appear to be the principle causes behind exorbitant transaction charges. Memecoin mania additionally drove up gasoline charges on Ethereum’s blockchain.

Ordinals Drive Bitcoin Community Congestion

The Ordinals protocol launched by developer Casey Rodarmor in January 2023 permits customers to inscribe information on each satoshi, the smallest BTC unit. This incentivized customers to experiment with fungible token requirements and non-fungible tokens also referred to as NFTs.

Knowledge from Dune Analytics indicated that over 3 million NFTs have been issued on BTC’s blockchain since Ordinals debuted. The vast majority of these NFTs are text-based and created by way of a course of known as ‘inscription’.

Shortly after Rodarmor unveiled the Ordinals protocol, a developer identified by the pseudonym Domo leveraged the protocol to construct the ‘Bitcoin Request for Remark’ (BRC-20) token customary. BRC-20 permits transferable belongings on BTC’s blockchain permitting customers to problem and commerce tokens on crypto’s largest community by market cap.

Certainly, it appears the BRC-20 token customary has breathed new life into BTC’s blockchain as over 11,000 tokens have been issued utilizing Domo’s customary. OrdSpace information confirmed tokens created beneath BRC-2O boast virtually $1 billion in mixed market cap.

ORDI, believed to be the primary BRC-20 token and native token of Ordinals market, leads the pack with over $220 million in marketcap and greater than 7,000 distinctive holders. BRC-20 additionally opened up BTC’s blockchain to memecoin hysteria as tokens like Pepe, VMPX, and Meme garnered tons of of tens of millions in day by day buying and selling quantity.

Notably, the Pepe token on BTC’s community is to not be confused with the Pepe memecoin issued on Ethereum.

Crypto commentators and BTC Maxis urged that Ordinals beckons a brand new period for BTC and its community, beefing up utility and propelling community exercise. The additional community demand additionally affected a serious crypto change.

Binance paused BTC withdrawals twice on Sunday earlier than resuming regular operations and mulling plans of integrating the Lightning Community, a layer 2 scaling resolution constructed atop the BTC mainnet.