Bitcoin overtakes Solana to become second most popular NFT blockchain
The monthly trading volume of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and memecoins on Bitcoin in May surpassed Solana’s volume, according to data from CryptoSlam.
Trading volume for Bitcoin ordinals is currently second only to Ethereum, which did $393 million in NFT volume, more than double that of Bitcoin (BTC) ordinals in the 30 days starting on April 23. Bitcoin gained a significant lead over popular blockchains such as Polygon, ImmutableX, BNB Chain and Solana during this period.
According to a Dune dashboard from BRC-20 token standard creator Domo, BRC-20 token transactions accounted for the majority of order activity on Bitcoin.
The BRC-20 token standard is an experimental fungible token standard built using ordinals. There has been hype for memecoin, speculative cryptocurrencies whose price action is driven by certain enthusiast communities.
The total market capitalization of BRC-20 memecoins broke the $1 billion mark during the first half of May as the hype surrounding it picked up. The current market cap of BRC-20 tokens is $447 million.
The popular BRC-20 tokens such as ORDI, PEPE and MEME have no utilities associated with them and were issued primarily for experimental purposes. For example, Twitter user Domo created ORDI to showcase the BRC-20 functionality that Ordinals provided.
The primary driver of BRC-20 volumes appears to come from traders looking to take advantage of the newfound craze. However, as the gains slow, trading activity around the BRC-20 tokens is likely to fall as well.
Bitcoin NFT Trading Picks Up
Besides BRC-20 tokens, the market is witnessing a shift from BRC-20 tokens to media-based ordinals, also known as Bitcoin NFTs. Magic Eden, a popular Bitcoin NFT marketplace, has started eating into UniSat’s volume, which primarily trades BRC-20 tokens.
Popular pools like Bitcoin Frogs did around a quarter of the volume of top pools on Ethereum like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which had just over $40 million in trading volume between April 23 and May 23.
NFT traders will hope to replicate the success of Ethereum NFTs on Bitcoin with collections forming exclusive groups of ordinal holders.
So far, the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem looks miles behind Ethereum, which can support decentralized autonomous organizations and has other advantages such as integration with the strong $27.5 billion decentralized finance ecosystem.
For example, BAYC and Azuki have metaverse projects built around them, which provide exclusive benefits to NFT holders. On the other hand, CryptoPunks and Milady Maker enjoy popularity due to their scarcity and early movement advantages.
Related: Milady NFT floor price rises after Elon Musk tweet
It remains to be seen how successful Bitcoin NFT collections are in forming loyal communities like CryptoPunks, Milady Maker, Azuki or BAYC. While trading volume for NFTs and memecoins on Bitcoin reached second place in May, the NFT collections have yet to benefit or build a loyal community of holders.
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This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
