The ongoing frenzy around ordinal inscriptions is creating a surge in demand for block space, leading to a notable spike in network transaction fees across various blockchains, not just limited to the Bitcoin network.
During the weekend, inscriptions on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain experienced a sharp increase, subsequently causing gas fees to skyrocket. Dune Analytics reported a record high gas charge for inscriptions, reaching $8.3 million on December 16. Among the networks affected, Avalanche was at the forefront, expending over $5.6 million on that day, followed by Arbitrum One, which spent $2.1 million on inscription gas costs. Approximately 58% of network gas fees on Avalanche and 48% on zkSync Era were directed towards EVM inscriptions in the past 24 hours.
Interestingly, a significant proportion—73%—of BNB Chain’s recent transactions within the last 24 hours were dedicated to inscriptions. The situation on the Arbitrum One network became severe enough to cause a 78-minute outage on December 15. Similar to ordinal numbers on the Bitcoin network, EVM inscriptions involve embedding information in transaction call data to create unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on-chain.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin network also witnessed a surge in inscription numbers over the weekend, resulting in increased block space requirements and subsequently higher transaction fees. Presently, there are close to 280,000 unconfirmed transactions, leading to transaction fees spiking to $37, rendering many unable to utilize the network as a peer-to-peer digital currency. Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back commented that high fees are propelling Layer-2 adoption and fostering innovation, indicating that ordinals cannot be halted.
On December 18, an expert in NFTs and ordinals, known as “Leonidas,” highlighted that a single collection had outperformed renowned NFT collections like CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, DeGods, Moonbirds, Doodles, and Meebits combined in terms of units sold within the past 24 hours. Specifically, the Bitcoin Frogs Ordinals series emerged at the top of the list with a market capitalization of $182 million, as per his report.
