Daily transactions have rocketed to an all-time high of 682 000 this month, according to data from Glassnode, almost 40% higher than the previous peak in 2017. Bitcoin’s dominance, or its share of the overall US$1.16-trillion cryptocurrency market, has swelled to 44% from 38% at the start of the year.Enter BRC-20, the first class of crypto tokens to be built on the bitcoin blockchain, besides bitcoin itself.
Some investors and developers view bitcoin’s blockchain as a safer long-term basis for creating tokens and applications in the wake of the crypto carnage that followed the collapse of high-profile firms like FTX and a general flight from riskier assets, according to market players. “There isn’t much utility when it comes to BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals,” said CJ Reim, contributor at blockchain firm CoreDAO, though he sees the trend as “promising” in terms of interest in building products on the bitcoin blockchain.
“Gas” fees, or transactions costs on the bitcoin blockchain have soared over the past month, with the total dollar-denominated fees paid per day touching near a new all-time-high of $17.8-million/day, according to Glassnode data.