Bitcoin Fees Hit 2-Year High As BRC-20 Tokens Gain Steam

Summary:

• The mean outgo of sending a azygous transaction connected Bitcoin’s blockchain soared to astir $20, its highest constituent since April 2021.
• It seems that accrued request for BTC blockchain abstraction was triggered by heightened enactment connected the Ordinals protocol and tokens issued utilizing the BRC-20 standard.
• Binance was forced to halt BTC withdrawals doubly connected Sunday arsenic web congestion peaked, though the crypto speech aboriginal resumed operations aft moving $4.4 cardinal successful assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees rose to their highest constituent successful 2 years amid increasing involvement successful the Ordinals protocol and request for BRC-2O tokens issued connected BTC’s blockchain.

According to on-chain data, BTC transaction fees reached arsenic precocious arsenic $19.21, a two-year high. The outgo of sending a transaction connected BTC’s blockchain has not climbed truthful precocious since April 2021 erstwhile fees skyrocketed to $62.

A drastic summation successful meme tokens issued connected Bitcoin’s web on with a crisp ascent successful Ordinals enactment look to beryllium the main reasons down exorbitant transaction fees. Memecoin mania besides drove up state fees connected Ethereum’s blockchain.

Average Bitcoin Transaction Fees by Ycharts

Ordinals Drive Bitcoin Network Congestion

The Ordinals protocol introduced by developer Casey Rodarmor successful January 2023 allows users to inscribe information connected each satoshi, the smallest BTC unit. This incentivized users to experimentation with fungible token standards and non-fungible tokens besides known arsenic NFTs.

Data from Dune Analytics indicated that implicit 3 cardinal NFTs person been issued connected BTC’s blockchain since Ordinals debuted. The bulk of these NFTs are text-based and created done a process called ‘inscription’.

Shortly aft Rodarmor unveiled the Ordinals protocol, a developer known by the pseudonym Domo leveraged the protocol to physique the ‘Bitcoin Request for Comment’ (BRC-20) token standard. BRC-20 allows transferable assets connected BTC’s blockchain allowing users to contented and commercialized tokens connected crypto’s largest web by marketplace cap.

Indeed, it seems the BRC-20 token modular has breathed caller beingness into BTC’s blockchain arsenic implicit 11,000 tokens person been issued utilizing Domo’s standard. OrdSpace information showed tokens created nether BRC-2O boast $1.6 cardinal successful combined marketplace cap.

BRC-20 Tokens by OrdSpace

ORDI, believed to beryllium the archetypal BRC-20 token and autochthonal token of Ordinals marketplace, leads the battalion with implicit $220 cardinal successful marketcap and much than 7,000 unsocial holders. BRC-20 besides opened up BTC’s blockchain to memecoin hysteria arsenic tokens similar Pepe, VMPX, and Meme garnered hundreds of millions successful regular trading volume.

Notably, the Pepe token connected BTC’s web is not to beryllium confused with the Pepe memecoin issued connected Ethereum.

Crypto commentators and BTC Maxis suggested that Ordinals beckons a caller epoch for BTC and its network, beefing up inferior and propelling web activity. The other web request besides affected a large crypto exchange.

Binance paused BTC withdrawals doubly connected Sunday earlier resuming mean operations and mulling plans of integrating the Lightning Network, a furniture 2 scaling solution built atop the BTC mainnet.