EVM Ordinal Inscriptions Propel Gas Fee to $8.3M Across Multiple Protocols

Jimmy Aki
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The Ordinal inscriptions frenzy is gradually hitting several blockchain protocols at once. According to a report, the gas fee for Ordinals inscriptions surged to $8.3 million over the weekend.

Ordinals No Longer Bitcoin-focused

Ordinals, a non-fungible token (NFT) collectible known for allowing data inscription in each satoshi, is emerging as a significant player in the expanding crypto ecosystem.

As per a Dune Analytics report, Ordinal inscriptions on various blockchains have notably contributed to an increase in gas fees (network transaction fees).

Quantifying the fees generated over the weekend, the Dune Analytics platform reported a total of $8.3 million incurred in minting these digital collectibles.

From the released data, the Avalanche C-Chain blockchain appears to be the prominent protocol for EVM-powered Ordinal inscriptions. According to the blockchain data platform, the Avalanche blockchain constituted 79.96% of gas fees spent on inscriptions.

It also leads in the total number of inscription transactions in the past 24 hours, with 87.84% executed on this scalable crypto network.

However, this does not tell the entire story. The Avalanche blockchain accounted for $5.6 million of gas fees spent on December 16 alone across three months. Following the BNB Smart Chain, it ranked second in the total number of inscriptions conducted in the past three months, with five million-plus inscriptions compared to 10.4 million on BNB.

Ordinal
Source: Dune Analytics

On the other hand, Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum One came second in the highest amount spent on inscriptions, with $2.1 million recorded.

Over the past week, the BNB Smart Chain has actively inscribed more than 1,426 digital collectibles, with the Polygon PoS protocol coming in second with 1,326.

However, the Avalanche blockchain leads the ranks again, as a whopping 74.73% of gas fees have been spent inscribing NFTs on the distributed ledger network.

Bitcoin Ordinals Taking the Space By Storm

Ordinal inscriptions are basically an attempt to introduce more use cases to the rigid Bitcoin network. Introduced in early 2023, the concept looks to introduce the same level of robustness the Ethereum network offers to Web3 users by ensuring digital artworks and images are recorded on the foremost blockchain platform.

The Ordinals frenzy has become a huge success, with the PFP collections hitting major market valuations. According to an Ordinal and NFT expert, Leonidas, a single Ordinal collection recorded a more robust trading volume than popular PFP collections like CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, DeGods, and several other top digital collectibles.

Providing a better context behind the claim, Leonidas tweeted that the Bitcoin Frogs collection completed $182.2 million in market cap. Other collections like OMB and OCM collectibles had $79.3 million and $38.1 million, respectively.

Industry experts like Bitcoin cryptographer Adam Back have applauded the growth of Bitcoin-powered Ordinal inscriptions, stating that it would drive adoption and force innovation despite the high fees involved.

High Bitcoin Ordinal inscriptions have led to network outages on the Arbitrum One network. According to reports on X (formerly Twitter), the Arbitrum One network experienced a 78-minute pause due to high inscription volume on the protocol.

On the primary Bitcoin network, several transactions are still unconfirmed. According to memepool.space, there are still 280,000 unconfirmed transactions due to limited block space for verifying transactions.

This limitation has led to increased Bitcoin transaction fees, with prices hitting a high of $37 for priority transactions.

About Jimmy Aki PRO INVESTOR

Based in the UK, Jimmy is an economic researcher with outstanding hands-on and heads-on experience in Macroeconomic finance analysis, forecasting and planning. He has honed his skills having worked cross-continental as a finance analyst, which gives him inter-cultural experience. He currently has a strong passion for regulation and macroeconomic trends as it allows him peek under the global bonnet to see how the world works.