Bitcoin’s non-fungible token (NFT) market has surged past Ethereum in the last week, driven by a sudden rise in Bitcoin Ordinals-based NFT collections.
Led by the NodeMonkes collection, the Bitcoin NFT market witnessed an impressive 80% week-over-week growth, totaling a remarkable $168.5 million in sales. In contrast, Ethereum recorded $162 million in NFT sales during the same period, as reported by CryptoSlam.
The emergence of Bitcoin Ordinals has been instrumental in reshaping the NFT landscape. Ordinals, launched in January 2023, introduced a novel concept by enabling users to associate files, like images, with satoshis (sats), the smallest Bitcoin unit, effectively creating NFT-like assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Among the top-selling NFT collections of the week, three out of the top five were Bitcoin Ordinals-based. The uncategorized Ordinals led sales, generating over $43 million through more than 47,000 transactions. Following closely behind was the NodeMonkes collection, a series of 10,000 unique pixelated profile picture (PFP)-style Ordinals, with over $41 million in sales, marking a nearly 170% increase from the previous week. The Natcats collection, another Ordinals-based project, secured the fourth position with over $10 million in sales.
NodeMonkes, launched in December, claims to be the first 10,000-strong collection on Bitcoin. Despite earlier appearances of other 10,000-count Ordinals collections, the NodeMonkes team engraved their collection onto the blockchain in February 2023, just a month after Ordinals’ initial release.
On March 2, user “NFTstats” reported that NodeMonkes’ market capitalization exceeded $500 million, making it the third-largest PFP-style NFT collection across all blockchains, trailing only the Ethereum-based Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
The recent surge in NodeMonkes’ popularity has spurred speculation within the industry. Some insiders attribute its appeal to its “meaningful provenance.” Kevin Wu, founder of NFT collection GRAYCRAFT, highlighted NodeMonkes’ significance as the first PFP-style NFT collection on “the first chain ever,” presenting a compelling narrative that speculative investors may find enticing.
The NFT market has witnessed a resurgence recently alongside the recovery in crypto prices. In October, NFT trading volume surged by $99 million to reach $405 million, indicating levels of sales not seen since August. Additionally, Bitcoin’s NFT network sales hit a milestone in December 2023, surpassing $881 million for the first time ever.
The Musée d’Orsay, a prestigious museum in Paris, has also joined the blockchain and digital art realm with its first-ever commission of an on-chain NFT exhibition. Titled “The Convergence of Breath,” the collection consists of five single-edition NFTs minted on the Tezos blockchain, stemming from an art installation and social experiment showcased in the museum’s digital-themed exhibition, “Le Code d’Orsay.”
