Assessing Bitcoin Ordinals’ crest and trough season since July

• The total number of inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain has surpassed 24 million.
• Bitcoin NFTs were no more in the top five with respect to volume.

Over the past few months, Bitcoin Ordinals witnessed an interplay of highs and lows, marking significant shifts in the ecosystem. At press time, the total inscriptions minted till data had surpassed 24 million. 

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Bottoms through the peaks

Data from Dune Analytics showed that BTC Ordinals crossing the 24 million landmark could be linked to a hike in daily inscriptions. On 14 August, the daily inscriptions minted on the Bitcoin blockchain was 317, 350. This represented the highest number over the last week.

Source: Dune Analytics

But before the recent increase, Bitcoin Ordinals witnessed a down season. For instance, on 2, 12, and 22 July, the number of inscriptions stood at an extremely low level and did not edge any closer to the peaks. On 7 and 8 August, the situation continued.

The decline in the aforementioned times explains how interest in Bitcoin Ordinals subdued. Furthermore, the activity rate was also not as impressive as in the first quarter (Q1). Thus, the decrease meant that users’ creation of Bitcoin-native Digital Artifacts fell.

Recall that Ordinals, put forward by Casy Rodarmor, emerged around the first three months of the year. And despite the controversy around the application on the Bitcoin network, its adoption skyrocketed.

A twist of fate for Ordinals

Introducing recursive inscriptions to the blockchain significantly impacted the technology. For context, recursive inscriptions are features of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows for the creation of complex data structures that can be stored on the blockchain. 

Furthermore, developers noted that they will create a chain of inscriptions with the introduction of recursive inscriptions in July. Additionally, each of these references data was created previously, from existing inscriptions.

As a result, thousands of recursive inscriptions made it to the Bitcoin blockchain. At the time of writing, assets inscribed in text format topped the inscription created to date. Images came second while applications did not account for much.

Source: Dune Analytics

Despite making as much as $56 million in fees, Bitcoin Ordinals have been yanked off the NFT top standings. At some point,  Bitcoin NFT sales threatened to take Ethereum [ETH] off the top spot.

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Unfortunately, the blockchain has not been able to maintain that momentum. At press time, Bitcoin had dropped to 7th in terms of the volume registered by each blockchain. The fall reinforced the notion that interest in Bitcoin Ordinals and NFTs at large had reduced.