Ordinal Punks emerge as leading Bitcoin NFT collection

PROOF Collective noted that Ordinal Punks NFTs have been rising in price.

The tweet mentioned the recent sale of #27, which sold for 1.93 BTC ($43,800). It also stated another sale occurred soon after, for the sum of 2.06 BTC ($46,800) but did not disclose which punk the sale related to.

A Reddit poster said, “Ordinal Punk with the inscription number 620 was apparently sold for 9.5 Bitcoins ($215,800)” during the early hours of Feb. 9. The punk in question is #94. Some commenters explained the high sale price as money laundering or wash trading to create a manipulated price floor.

What’s the deal with Ordinal Punks?

The parallels between Ordinal Punks and Larva Lab’s CryptoPunks on Ethereum are stark. Both were algorithmically generated and feature a retro pixel art style. However, in the case of Ordinal Punks, there are only 100 NFTs versus 10,000 CryptoPunks.

PROOF Collective’s Director of Research said Ordinal Punks are expensive to create and get on the Bitcoin blockchain, which accounts for the low run of just 100 NFTs.

Also, unlike traditional NFT sales, where anyone with the funds can browse and buy through dedicated marketplaces like OpenSea, Magic Eden, or JPG Store, Ordinal Punks are traded between tech-savvy Bitcoin node operators in a process that involves the project founder.

“It requires running a full node in order to transfer one from one wallet to another and buy one. So people are using Escrow services. Basically, sending the money to the founder of the project, who then gets the Ordinal, doing deals that way.”

@dotta described the tooling process as “incredibly bad,” but given the rawness and exclusivity, an experience that harkens back to “early days alpha.”

“It feels like fun early-days alpha

Swapping Ordinals in small Discord channels via trusted OTC in an awkward way is exactly what alpha tastes like.

You have a passionate group of people who see something special even though the tooling is incredibly bad”

PROOF Collective’s Director of Research said improvements to the process are expected, especially in decentralizing the sales process. In rounding off, he said:

“Interesting to see how this goes; it’s a little bit lofty, seems a little bit square peg, round hole, but you’re still seeing a lot of interest; obviously, Bitcoin has a ton of provenance.”

Bitcoin controversy

NFTs are not generally associated with Bitcoin.

Ordinal Punks are possible due to the Taproot soft fork, which included the functionality to extend block sizes above the standard 1 MB limit, thus accommodating jpegs and other such digital artifacts, otherwise known as “Inscriptions.”

The use of the Bitcoin blockchain for non-monetary transactions has divided community opinion. Critics argue that transaction fees will increase and the blockchain will bloat over time. Supporters say Ordinals is about freedom, characterizing the Bitcoin idea of censorship resistance.

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