Is the Bitcoin ordinals hype over?

After the Bitcoin Blockchain reached its capacity limit in the spring, fee charges have been at normal levels for a while. Is the Ordinals hype over?

The hype surrounding Bitcoin ordinals, also known as Bitcoin NFTs, appears to be over. Data from Dune Analytics shows that users are "writing" less and less data on the blockchain. Yesterday, Aug. 15, for example, there were only 353 images. By comparison, during the peak phase in mid-May, there were sometimes as many as 5,000 images registered per day.

This brings Bitcoin network usage fees back to normal levels. Instead of 257 BTC per day at its peak, Ordinals users now pay only about 3 Bitcoin in fees.

Earlier this year, developer Casey Rodarmor made headlines with the Ordinals protocol. The protocol allows data sets such as images or even small applications to be written to the blockchain. Within a short time, the blocks reached their capacity limit - and costs rose exponentially.