Ordinals, likened to NFTs stored on the Bitcoin blockchain network, have surpassed 100,000 inscriptions in just a few weeks.
The protocol, designed and launched last month by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, has seen 50,000 added in the last five days. Most would appear to be pictures, audio files and PDFs, but any kind of encrypted data can be added.
To buy or trade Ordinals, a Bitcoin Ordinal wallet is needed. Not available on marketplaces such as OpenSea, it is impossible to verify sales, which are mostly agreed in discord channels and primarily among Bitcoin node operators.
Prominent projects include Bitcoin Shrooms, Astral Babes and Bitcoin Punks – the latter being Bitcoin-based uploads of Ethereum CryptoPunks. One of these has now reportedly sold for 9.5 BTC, approximately $215,000, although this cannot be verified.
And according to one Reddit user posting in r/CryptoCurrency, a new Ordinal – namely inscription 2042, consisting of one second of audio featuring a wet fart – has sold for 12.3 BTC, the equivalent of $280,000.
The buzz around Ordinals may be helping the crypto market, with BTC approaching $25,000 – it’s highest point since August – after adding 11% in the last 24 hours.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Former users of FTX are suing investors Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm in a San Francisco federal court for alleged fraudulent promotion of the cryptocurrency exchange before it went bankrupt.
Amazon’s venture capital arm, Amazon Alexa Fund, led a $20m fundraise into character design studio Superplastic as part of a multi-faceted partnership which will see Amazon Studios create an animated comedy series based on its synthetic celebrity characters.
Digital twin technology firm Prevu3D has raised $10 million in a round led by Cycle Capital to build the industrial metaverse.
Aura Network has raised $4m in a round led by Hashed and Coin98 Ventures to build an ecosystem for global NFT adoption.
Billionaire Charlie Munger, right-hand man of Warren Buffett, told CNBC in the US that “I am not proud of my country for allowing this… crypto s***. It’s worthless, it’s no good, it’s crazy, it’ll do nothing but harm, it’s antisocial to allow it”.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the 22,500 coins is at $1.12 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 8.8% increase in the last 24 hours.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.