Just 18 months after Casey Rodarmor unveiled the Ordinal protocol, the Bitcoin network already ranks third in terms of digital object sales, coming in at $4.3 billion. Digital objects include graphic images, audio, video and other files, as well as quasi-tokens.
Image source: cryptoslam.io
Among the great variety of tokens, quasi-tokens are the most popular ones. At first, standard BRC-20 coins were in the lead. After Bitcoin's halving event, they were eclipsed by Runes. The essence, however, is the same: 99.9% of the group is represented by meme coins, and their minting and exchange are driven by speculative sentiment.
Image source: dune.com
If we talk about NFT collections that are popular on the Bitcoin network, the first place goes to NodeMonkes with trade volume of $238 million. In comparison, the Ethereum network's top collection with monkeys is Bored Ape Yacht Club, which sees $3.2 billion in volume.
Image source: coingecko.com
Bitcoin reached third place in terms of trading volume among blockchains quickly enough, but further expansion will be difficult. The reason for this is low. As soon as the hype around digital artefacts starts to grow, commission costs creep up.
Record interest in quasi-tokens was shown on 20 April, as the Runes protocol was launched at the same time as the Bitcoin halving event took place. Runes took up 73.5% of all transactions that day, and the network's average commission jumped to a record $128.
Image source: dune.com
There is no direct impact on Bitcon's value from circulating digital artefacts.
Image source: cryptocurrency exchange StormGain
For this reason, many users have a negative view of quasi-tokens, which cause an increase in costs without carrying a payload.
Image source: blockchain.com
The opposite view is held by miners, who generated a record $108 million in revenue on 20 April (in spite of the halving of the reward per block mined).
StormGain Analytics Group
(a platform to trade, exchange and store cryptocurrency)