Bitcoin exceeds Solana as second most popular NFT blockchain

Bitcoin secured a considerable lead over popular blockchains such as Polygon, ImmutableX, BNB Chain and Solana

The monthly trading volume of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and memecoins on Bitcoin in May exceeded Solana’s volume, as per data from CryptoSlam.

The trading volume of Bitcoin ordinals presently sits at second place behind Ethereum, which did $393mln in NFT volume, more than double that of ordinals on Bitcoin in 30-days beginning April 2023. Bitcoin secured a considerable lead over popular blockchains such as Polygon, ImmutableX, BNB Chain and Solana during this time.

As per a Dune dashboard by Domo, BRC-20 token transactions accounted for most of ordinals activity on Bitcoin.

The BRC-20 token standard is an experimental fungible token standard built using ordinals. It has harboured hype for memecoin, speculative cryptocurrencies whose price action is boosted by specific ardent communities.

The total market capitalization of BRC-20 memecoins broke the $1bln mark in H1 of May as the hype around it increased. The present market capitalization of BRC-20 tokens stands at $447mln.

The popular BRC-20 tokens such as ORDI, PEPE and MEME have no utility attached to them and were basically issued for experimental reasons. For example, Twitter user Domo created ORDI to display the BRC-20 functionality provided by Ordinals.

The fundamental driver of BRC-20 volumes seems to be coming from traders who are looking to benefit from the new craze. Nevertheless, as gains recede, the trading activity around BRC-20 tokens will possibly drop as well.

Apart from BRC-20 tokens, the market is seeing a move from BRC-20 tokens to media-based ordinals or Bitcoin NFTs. Magic Eden, a popular Bitcoin NFT marketplace, has begun to eat into UniSat’s volume, which basically trades in BRC-20 tokens.

Popular collections such as Bitcoin Frogs did nearly one-fourth the volume of highest collections on Ethereum such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which did just more than $40mln in trading volume during April 23-May 23.

NFT traders will expect to replicate the success of Ethereum nonfungible tokens on Bitcoin with collections forming exclusive groups of ordinals holders.

Till now, the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem seems way behind Ethereum, which can support decentralized autonomous organizations and has other benefits such as integration with the $27.5bln DeFi ecosystem.