Polkadot (DOT) is experiencing a major transaction blowout in what is regarded as an unprecedented move on the protocol. According to on-chain data, Polkadot’s daily transactions have topped the 1,000,000 benchmark, marking a historic high for the layer-1 blockchain network.
Before this major blowout, the best-recorded transaction count Polkadot witnessed was 941,000 transactions on May 5, 2021. While this previous transaction jump came as a natural embrace of the blockchain, this current blowup is notably stirred by the emergence of Inscriptions.
1 Million transactions today on the Polkadot relay chain.
— asynchronous rob (@rphmeier) December 21, 2023
This is the highest activity day on Polkadot in history, topping out the 941,000 transactions on May 5, 2021.
The activity is due to inscriptions. pic.twitter.com/BYoMBREbyd
Inscriptions started this year with the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain, and it forms the basis for creating digital collections that are registered on the tiniest bits of the blockchain. When they emerged, they stirred a considerable jump in transaction count and miner revenue for Bitcoin. Seeing the importance of these Ordinals, as they are also called, the innovation started spreading to other mainstream L1s, including Litecoin (LTC).
Ordinal Inscriptions are now the next rave of the Web3.0 ecosystem, and they are remarkably driving sentiment on numerous protocols beyond Polkadot. Some of the blockchains currently feeling the impact of Inscriptions are Avalanche (AVAX), Arbitrum (ARB) and Shiba Inu’s Shibarium.
Polkadot price reacts, road to $8?
The surge in total transaction count on the Polkadot protocol has pushed the price of the coin up 8.96% in the past 24 hours to $7.54. Effectively, Polkadot has pared off the losses it accrued in the past week as it pushed its gains to 3.13% for this period.
With the impact of Ordinal Inscriptions, Polkadot may seek to retest the $8 price benchmark, a feat which, if achieve, will not only be its highest level for this year but will mark the biggest since mid-August 2022. This feat is possible when other important innovations happening on Polkadot are factored in.