Average weekly transaction volume fell to ~283,000 (the lowest since February) after a peak of ~600,000 recorded on September 20. The decline occurred concurrently with a slowdown in activity in the Ordinals segment, writes The Block.
In March 2023, a developer using the pseudonym domo introduced BRC-20 — an experimental standard for interchangeable tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. A month later capitalization of assets built on its basis exceeded $1 billion.
By the end of August, the share of bitcoin-NFT-related transactions in the network reached 85% . In September Ordinals and BRC-20 filled the blocks of digital gold to 100%.
Since the protocol launch, 35.2 million inscriptions have been created, totaling 13.1 GB. Miners earned 1,312 BTC in fees.
According to Dune Analytics, since the end of September the number of new Ordinals has fallen to April levels.
The Block analyst Rebecca Stevens linked the decline in the metric to the proposal of an alternative to BRC-20.
At the end of September Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor introduced a new standard of interchangeable tokens — Runes. The latter leaves no ‘garbage’ in the Bitcoin network, which is characteristic of its predecessor.
Stevens also noted concerns in the community about erroneous inscription numbers amid calls to reindex Ordinals, which could affect existing collections.
“Users may refrain from activity until this is resolved,” Stevens explained.
In May, Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dash Jr proposed introducing a ‘spam filter’ for tokens of the BRC-20 and Ordinals standard due to their negative impact on the network.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, for his part, supported the protocol for launching Bitcoin NFTs, calling its appearance a return to the ‘creator culture’ in the blockchain of the first cryptocurrency.