In less than six months, the number of Ordinals on the Bitcoin network has grown from a single inscription to an impressive 10 million, showcasing its rapid adoption.
Just days after the project’s creator, Casey Rodarmor, stepped down as the lead maintainer on May 28, the milestone of 10 million Ordinals inscriptions was achieved. In his Twitter announcement, Rodarmor stated that he was unable to provide the necessary attention to the Ordinals project. Consequently, he handed over the role to the pseudonymous coder known as Raphjaph.
Initially introduced in January, the Ordinals protocol quickly gained popularity as the preferred method for minting new assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Ordinals were originally designed to “inscribe” data in the witness section of Bitcoin transactions, allowing them to be written onto individual satoshis—the smallest divisible unit of BTC.
However, the surge in Ordinals inscriptions can be largely attributed to the introduction of the BRC-20 token standard in early March. This groundbreaking token standard, created by the pseudonymous developer known as “Domo,” enabled users to mint entirely new tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain for the first time in history.
Since its introduction, the number of Bitcoin-based tokens has skyrocketed. In just the first week, the count rose from a few hundred to over 25,000 at the time of publication, as reported by data from BRC-20.io.
The significant growth in Ordinals inscriptions and the proliferation of Bitcoin-based tokens demonstrate the evolving landscape of tokenization on the Bitcoin network. As more users embrace the potential of tokenization, the Bitcoin blockchain continues to serve as a versatile platform for creating and managing various digital assets.
