Ordinal Punks emerges as the leading Bitcoin NFT collection
PROOF Collective noted that Ordinal Punk’s NFTs have increased in price.
The tweet mentioned the recent sale of #27, which sold for 1.93 BTC ($43,800). It also stated that another sale occurred soon after, for the sum of 2.06 BTC ($46,800), but did not reveal which punk the sale was linked to.
A Reddit poster said, “Ordinal Punk with inscription number 620 was apparently sold for 9.5 Bitcoins ($215,800)” during the early hours of February 9. The punk in question is #94. Some commentators explained the high selling price as money laundering or laundry trading to create a manipulated price floor.
What’s the deal with Ordinal Punks?
The parallels between Ordinal Punks and Larva Labs CryptoPunks on Ethereum are strong. Both were generated algorithmically and have a retro pixel art style. But in the case of Ordinal Punks, there are only 100 NFTs against 10,000 CryptoPunks.
PROOF Collective’s research director said that Ordinal Punks are expensive to create and get on the Bitcoin blockchain, which accounts for the low circulation of just 100 NFTs.
Unlike traditional NFT sales, where anyone with the funds can browse and buy through dedicated marketplaces such as OpenSea, Magic Eden or the JPG Store, Ordinal Punks are traded between tech-savvy Bitcoin node operators in a process that involves the project founder.
“It requires running a full node to transfer one from one wallet to another and buy one. So people use Escrow services. Basically, to send the money to the founder of the project, who then gets the Ordinal, and makes deals on it the way.”
@dotta described the tooling process as “incredibly bad“, but given the rawness and exclusivity, an experience that harkens back to “alpha in the early days.”
“It feels like a fun early alpha
Trading Ordinals in small Discord channels via reliable OTC the hard way is exactly what alpha tastes like.
You have a passionate group of people who see something special even if the tool is incredibly poor.”
PROOF Collective’s director of research said improvements are expected in the process, particularly in terms of decentralizing the sales process. In closing, he said:
“Interesting to see how this goes; it is a bit high, seems a bit square stick, round hole, but you still see a lot of interest; obviously Bitcoin has a ton of provenance.”
Bitcoin Controversy
NFTs are not usually associated with Bitcoin.
Ordinal Punks is possible due to the Taproot soft fork, which included the functionality to expand block sizes beyond the standard 1MB limit, thereby accommodating JPEGs and other such digital artifacts, otherwise known as “Inscriptions.”
The use of the Bitcoin blockchain for non-monetary transactions has divided community opinion. Critics argue that transaction fees will increase and the blockchain will bloat over time. Proponents say that Ordinals are about freedom, characterizing the Bitcoin idea of censorship resistance.
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