Galaxy Digital’s research unit believes that Bitcoin NFT marketplace will grow to a $4.5 billion market cap. From their projections, these growth figures will emerge by March 2025.
NFTs have become increasingly popular across several blockchains due to their growing relevance. These digital assets are making waves in several spheres, such as gaming, sports, and as reward tokens.
Bitcoin Ordinals Leading The Charge
Bitcoin NFT protocols on mainnet are referred to as Ordinals. Casey Rodarmor, a software engineer, created these Ordinals and officially launched the program on January 21, 2023.
This protocol enables Bitcoin’s version of NFTs to operate on the network. These digital works consist of PDFs, JPEG images, and video or audio formats. These inscribed Satoshis represented by numbers can be secured and are transferable to other Bitcoin addresses.
However, the Ordinals’ introduction to the network met mixed reactions as those in support argued that the Ordinals offered more financial use cases than Bitcoin. Others believe that the concept negates the original plan for Bitcoin by its legendary creator Satoshi Nakamoto as a peer-to-peer cash system.
Dan Held, a Bitcoin bull, supported the development of these ordinals and stated that it would increase the demand for block space, increasing the network fees. Bitcoin is Saving, a Twitter user, argued that marginalized people in developing countries must pay more to operate their Bitcoin nodes because privileged whites want to add JPEG drawings on the BTC blockchain as status symbols.
Another observer, Neil Jacobs stated that Layer 2 technology was created to earn higher fees since small transactions would not be realistic on the base layer. Also, he stated that while the cost of running a node will increase, the true impact of the ordinal technology cannot be fully understood at the moment but with time.
Lyn Alden‘s response to Bitcoin is Saving’s post stated that some people want to trade digital pieces of paper based on weekly price charts. Others want to bet on how the world will look in five years. She stated that half of Financial Twitter on her timeline consists of these two groups constantly debating each other.
Despite the mixed reactions, the project flagged off and has recorded success, prompting Galaxy Digital’s optimistic projections. Bitcoin Ordinals will likely change the NFT market since Bitcoin is the most popular and trusted crypto project worldwide. Most of the supporters of this innovation hope that Bitcoin’s status will influence its NFTs positively in the coming years.
Yuga Labs Join The Ordinal Trend
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs announced a new NFT token TwelveFold on the BTC network. It was announced on Twitter on February 28, with Yuga Labs launching 300 tokenized computer-generated artworks as part of the Twelvefold collection for auction.
Yuga Labs also announced, on their blog, an original and experimental 300-piece generative art collection inscribed on Satoshis. A Satoshi is the smallest individual unit of a bitcoin. An inscribed Satoshi is traced using its minting time through the Ordinal Theory Protocol.
Twelvefold is a base 12 art system located around a 12×13 grid supported by the Bitcoin blockchain. This collection boasts highly-rendered 3D elements with hand-drawn features supporting the ordinal inscriptions currently done by hand.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from Tradingview.com and Galaxy Digital.