Bitcoin NFT Sales Make a Comeback, Surpass Ethereum

In a surprising turn of events, Bitcoin non-fungible token (NFT) sales have outpaced Ethereum over the past week, marking an 80% increase week-over-week, totaling an impressive $168.5 million in sales. 

This unprecedented surge is largely attributed to the sudden rise of Bitcoin Ordinals-based NFT collections, with NodeMonkes leading the pack.

On the other hand, firms like GameStop have already called it quits on the NFT plans, recently announcing the closure of its NFT marketplace.

Bitcoin Ordinals Rise to Popularity 

The Ordinals platform, launched in January 2023, introduced a revolutionary approach to NFTs by allowing users to embed files, such as images, into satoshis (sats), the smallest unit of Bitcoin. 

This unique feature has propelled BTC into the forefront of the NFT market, surpassing Ethereum, which recorded $162 million in sales during the same period, according to data from CryptoSlam!.

NodeMonkes Rise to Popularity

The top-performing collection within the Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem is NodeMonkes, a set of 10,000 distinctive pixelated profile pictures (PFP)-style Ordinals launched in December.

NodeMonkes saw an astonishing 170% increase in sales from the previous week, accumulating over $41 million. In an unexpected twist, NodeMonkes has now claimed the title of the third-largest PFP-style NFT collection across all blockchains, boasting a market capitalization surpassing $500 million, as reported by user “NFTstats” on March 2.

Uncatigorized Ordinals Lead the Sales

The leading sales within the Ordinals ecosystem were the Uncategorized Ordinals, not associated with any specific collection, which raked in over $43 million across 47,000 transactions. NodeMonkes secured the second spot, followed by the Ordinals collection Natcats with over $10 million in sales for the week.

NodeMonkes’ success has left the community puzzled, with no clear explanation for its sudden surge in popularity. 

Meanwhile, the Apple Store has remained adamant about its 30% taxation rule on NFT sales on the applications that are listed on its platform.

Sudden Increase in Interest in Bitcoin Ordinals

GRAYCRAFT founder Kevin Wu speculated on the matter, suggesting in a post on February 22 that NodeMonkes holds “meaningful provenance” as the first PFP-style NFT collection on “the first chain ever.” 

This unique historical narrative might be contributing to the collection’s recent attention, attracting speculative investors looking for distinctive narratives in the booming NFT market.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to strive for the top spot, XRP Cafe, a leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace on XRP Ledger (XRPL), plans to make improvements in the near future.