Buckling the trend of a stagnant crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $71,000 in Asian trading on Monday, April 8th, for the first time since early April. This price jump coincides with a rise in bets on Ordinals, a recently launched feature on the Bitcoin blockchain, and anticipation surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin halving event.
The halving, expected later this month on April 20th, is a pre-programmed event that cuts the reward for mining new Bitcoins in half. This scarcity-driven approach has historically preceded bull runs for the cryptocurrency. Analysts believe the current price increase reflects investor confidence in a similar trend post-halving.
While the broader cryptocurrency market remained largely unchanged, the Ordinals ecosystem saw a surge in activity. Ordinals allow users to embed data, including images and text, directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain. This innovation has sparked a wave of excitement, with some viewing it as a potential game-changer for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and on-chain data storage.
“The rise of Ordinals is particularly interesting,” said Maya Kwon, a crypto analyst at InVestEd. “It represents a novel use case for the Bitcoin blockchain and could potentially attract new users and investment to the space.”
This excitement for Ordinals is reflected in the rise of BRC-20 tokens, a standard used for tokens built on the Bitcoin blockchain through Ordinals. The BRC-20 category saw gains of nearly 6% in the past 24 hours, with infrastructure token Multibit (MULTI) rising a significant 22%. Meme coins like PEPE, ALEX, and PIZZA also experienced significant spikes, exceeding 60% growth.
However, the market for Ordinals themselves remains volatile. PUPS, the token associated with the popular Pups Ordinal project, witnessed a 22% drop after a 500% surge over the weekend, highlighting the potential for quick profits and losses in this nascent space.
“The Ordinals market is still in its early stages, and there’s bound to be a lot of volatility,” cautioned Kwon. “Investors should exercise caution and conduct thorough research before diving in.”
Despite the cautionary note, the overall sentiment surrounding Bitcoin and the broader crypto market appears cautiously optimistic. The price increase and the buzz around Ordinals suggest that investors are anticipating a significant shift in the market dynamics post-halving. However, only time will tell if this optimism translates into a sustained bull run for Bitcoin and the associated ecosystem.