Glassnode noted that this is the first time in Bitcoin’s history that the network has been used for non-monetary purposes.
The introduction of Bitcoin non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – the so-called Ordinals – set a new record in the life of the network. The number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses has increased to 44 million, the Glassnode cryptoanalytical platform announced.
In a February 13 report, Glassnode explained that for the first time in Bitcoin’s 14-year history, some network activity was used for non-peer-to-peer monetary Bitcoin (BTC) transfers:
“This is a new and unique moment in the history of Bitcoin, when an innovation generates a network activity that does not mean the transfer of the amount of coins for monetary purposes in the classical sense”.
A Glassnode he statedthat the wave of Ordinals contributed to the use of the Bitcoin network “for a short-term recovery in recent times”which is a lot “new active user” brought to the network, who have a non-zero balance.
“The primary source of this activity is due to Ordinals, which, rather than carrying a large volume of coins, carries a larger volume of data and new active users” Glassnode said.
According to Glassnode, since the launch of Ordinals on January 21st, the upper range of the average Bitcoin block size has increased from 1.5-2.0MB to 3.0-3.5MB in a matter of weeks. However, this did not lead to a dramatic increase in fees.
More than 78,400 NFT images and videos have been created so far. However, the appearance of NFTs on the Bitcoin network was not without controversy.
Some prominent bitcoin mags, such as Blockstream CEO Adam Back, have recently expressed their displeasure with the Ordinals protocol, suggesting that it deviates from Bitcoin’s original purpose. Others, however, were more open to the idea. Bitcoin bull Dan Held has repeatedly claimed that Ordinals are more “brings a financial use to Bitcoin”.