The price of ORDI, the native token of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, soared 620% over the last three months as sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) minted on the Bitcoin blockchain surged.
ORDI prices reached $20.70 on Tuesday, jumping from an all-time low of $2.86 on Sept. 11, according to CoinGecko data. Trading volume climbed to $112 million in 24 hours, with the price up more than 8.6% on the day, as of writing.
Despite the surge, fueled in part by expectations of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval, ORDI remains 27% off its record high of $28.52 in early May, days after its launch.
Ordinals spark new interest
Software developer Casey Rodarmor launched Ordinals on the Bitcoin mainnet on Jan. 21. The protocol uses what he calls “inscriptions” to create and store NFTs on the network. Ordinals are created by adding things like text, audio, or images to the Bitcoin blockchain.
Also read: Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs Losing Style as Sales Crash 99% Since May.
The latest price increase comes after ORDI was listed on the Binance crypto exchange on Nov. 7 as an emerging project under the “seed” tag and as sales of Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs soar. ORDI rocketed 50% within hours of the Binance listing.
Meanwhile, Radarmor’s inscriptions have been a hit with creators. Nearly 45 million inscriptions have been issued on Ordinals since its release, according to Dune Analytics data, generating $119 million worth of bitcoin in developer fees.
Of the total inscriptions to date, over 43.2 million are based on text, 1.4 million are image files, and 366,000 are apps. Several Bitcoin NFT projects have emerged since the launch of Ordinals. It includes Bitcoin Punks, BTC Machines, Pixel Pepes, and others.
Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs appeared to be losing style as trading and sales volume crashed 99% to just $3 million during the four months to August, per an earlier report from DappRadar.
While NFTs built on Ethereum and Polygon blockchains also fell during the same period, DappRadar blamed the sharper Ordinals decline on a lack of utility, waning interest, and rifts in the Bitcoin community.
But that is starting to change. CryptoSlam data shows that the Bitcoin network is currently ranked number one in terms of NFT sales volume over the past 30 days, with over $365 million generated from 10,152 buyers.
Bitcoin-based tokens rise
ORDI is a token based on the Bitcoin blockchain, built using the BRC-20 standard, or Bitcoin Request for Comment. The BRC-20 standard allows users to issue transferable tokens directly via the network.
The tokens, or inscriptions, are hosted on the Ordinals protocol. There are 37,630 such tokens in circulation today, OrdSpace data shows, and some have seen a spike in prices amid expectations of a Bitcoin spot ETF approval in the U.S.
The open-source developer token TURT surged 65% in 24 hours, followed by the BANK token, which rose more than 30%. Infrastructure token trac (TRAC) climbed 6%, meme token MEME gained 12%, and OSHI rose by 8.3%.
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