The Rise and Retreat: Bitcoin's Ordinal Inscription Wave Ebbs

Since September 25, 2023, the trend of Bitcoin-based Ordinal inscriptions has notably waned, hitting its most subdued levels since mid-April. On October 3 and 4, fewer than 17,000 inscriptions made their mark on Bitcoin’s distributed ledger, as both the volume of inscriptions and associated fees showed a marked decline.

Ordinal’s Falling Figures, Bitcoin’s $NFT Sales Decline and the BRC20 Market

With more than 35 million Ordinal inscriptions now on record, the inscription surge we’ve been witnessing is showing signs of slowing. Just last week, Bitcoin.com News spotlighted this inscription cool down, and the decline has persisted. The daily registration of Ordinal inscriptions has dipped to levels reminiscent of those before April 20, 2023, when 8,844 inscriptions were etched into the Bitcoin blockchain that day.

Following that day, inscriptions skyrocketed at a significant pace. In a mere span from April 21, the tally rose from 1.24 million to a staggering 4.5 million inscriptions by May 7, 2023. On that particular day in May, an impressive 400,091 inscriptions were logged within a 24-hour window. This fervor persisted throughout the summer months, with the daily rate peaking at 440,760 inscriptions on September 15.

From September 15, 2023 to October 8, 2023, the number of daily Ordinal inscriptions has dropped considerably.

However, merely ten days later, the landscape shifted dramatically. Moreover, inscribers are shelling out fewer fees to miners. As of now, miners have pocketed approximately 2,120.92 BTC, translating to around $59 million, from processing inscription transactions. Diving deeper, a majority (52.6%) of these inscriptions can be categorized as “text/plain; charset=UTF-8” with a count of around 18.54 million.

Close behind, 42.4% are labeled “text/plain,” adding up to about 14.93 million inscriptions. Other noteworthy mentions include 757,950 inscriptions of the “PNG” image type, 313,962 of the “JSON” variant, 228,210 of the “WEBP” format, and 131,025 bearing the “SVG” tag. The deceleration in inscriptions has offered a breather to bitcoin miners, allowing them to tackle the hefty backlog of transactions accumulated over the previous five months.

Ordinal inscription sales have taken a notable dip, with a marked drop in sales since the close of June. Data from cryptoslam.io reveals a shift in Bitcoin’s standing, now nestled at the eighth position in the realm of non-fungible token ($NFT), or Ordinal, sales. Over the past week, Bitcoin-centric $NFT sales amounted to $926,023 which is a significant 58% decrease from the previous week.

Yet, there’s a silver lining. The BRC20 token market has experienced a modest uptick of about 3% this week, reaching a value of $180.31 million. However, the lot of BRC20s today have lost 0.6% in 24 hours. The $ORDI token boasts the most substantial market cap at $71 million, followed by DFUK at $46 million, and MOON securing the third spot with $23 million. But it’s worth noting that $ORDI has plummeted by 87.81% from its peak on May 08, 2023, while MOON has dipped by 71.20%. Over the last day, BRC20 tokens have seen approximately $9.2 million in global trading activity.

What do you think about the Ordinal inscription downturn? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.