Binance to Support Bitcoin Ordinals Starting Late May

As per the reports, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has stated that it would begin supporting Bitcoin Ordinals (which are similar to NFTs on Ethereum) on its NFT marketplace by the end of May 2023. 

Binance Customers Not Required An Additional Wallet

This development will result in Binance customers not requiring an additional Bitcoin wallet capable of accepting Ordinals inscriptions, greatly simplifying trades. 

According to the announcement, “Binance users will also be able to purchase and trade Bitcoin NFTs directly with their Binance accounts.” The platform added: 

“This integration offers even more seamless and efficient trading for Binance users.”

‘Time Will Tell’

According to Mayur Kamat, Head of Product at Binance, it is too early to say how transformative integrating Ordinals to the NFT platform would be, nevertheless “time will tell.” 

“Since the beginning, everyone has wondered about Bitcoin use outside of [an] inflation hedge or [a] store of value. Not only has it shown massive value, but we are now seeing that the network can aspire to be more,” Kamat noted.

Bitcoin Ordinals Rising in Popularity

The announcement of Binance’s Ordinals inclusion emerged when an effort of Ordinals declarations resulted in Bitcoin going through the most transactions in its 14-year history on May 1, 2023, according to on-chain data. 

According to Dune Analytics, the overall number of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions jumped from 679 to 240,000 between February 1 and March 1. Magic Eden, the largest Solana NFT marketplace, opened its own “fully audited” marketplace for Bitcoin Ordinals in March.

Binance Suffers from Massive Withdrawals

Notably, the massive withdrawals from Binance have elicited a variety of opinions and assumptions. According to CryptoQuant statistics, a total outflow of 200k has been recorded from cryptocurrency exchanges in the previous two days, with 190k from Binance. 

The exchange was recently reported to have responded to persistent Bitcoin (BTC) congestion in the network by temporarily suspending withdrawals on its platform twice within 24 hours. The platform announced that it intends to make changes to its fees in the future to avoid a repetition.