The Bitcoin blockchain has recorded over 2 million Ordinal inscriptions as of April 28, 2023, reaching this milestone in just over four months since the first inscription was minted on December 16, 2022. The total fees for minting inscriptions amount to 196.22 bitcoin, equivalent to $5.78 million.
Of the over 2,116,396 inscriptions found, 67.6% are text-based, while 22.6% are images in JPG or PNG format, according to Dune Analytics. Additionally, more than 13,000 inscriptions include an application, and over 6,000 are animated images. Several collections of Ordinal inscriptions have gained popularity, with established ground values and weekly trading volumes.
Top collections by trading volume
Ordinalswallet.com data reveals the highest trading volume last week was for Clay Pepes, with a seven-day trading volume of 4.57 BTC or $134,082. Other popular collections include Sub-100K, Bitcoin Punks, Pixel Pepes, Sub-10K, and BTC Machines. The milestone of 2 million inscriptions coincided with the discovery of a bug that orphaned 1,200 inscriptions from the index.
Non-fungible token (NFT) historian Leonidas.og explained that the orphaned inscriptions occurred just before inscription number 420,285. The bug resulted from the ordinals protocol only counting inscriptions in the first input of a transaction. Despite the introduction of new blockchain features like Bitcoin Stamps and Litecoin-based Ordinal inscriptions, the trend of BTC-based inscriptions remains strong.
Over 18,500 stamps have been created on the Bitcoin blockchain since the project began. Litecoin Ordinal inscriptions have seen more activity with 224,060 inscriptions, but the trend of LTC-based inscriptions has slowed recently. Despite new features, the popularity of Ordinal inscriptions continues to grow, indicating a robust and resilient market for this type of digital collectible.
