Bitcoin NFTs Stage Impressive Comeback, Dominating Weekly Sales

Bitcoin nonfungible tokens (NFT) sales have surged ahead of Ethereum in the past week, fueled by a sudden rise in Bitcoin Ordinals-based NFT collections, primarily led by the NodeMonkes collection.

In the span of seven days, Bitcoin NFT sales witnessed an impressive 80% week-over-week increase, totaling $168.5 million. Notably, three of the top five best-selling NFT collections during this period were Bitcoin Ordinals-based, overshadowing Ethereum’s $162 million in sales, as reported by CryptoSlam! data.

Introduced in January 2023, Ordinals has empowered users to create NFT-like assets by allowing them to embed files, such as images, into satoshis (sats), the smallest unit of Bitcoin. Among the sales, the Uncategorzied Ordinals (not affiliated with any collection) stood out, generating over $43 million in sales through more than 47,000 transactions.

Following closely, the Bitcoin-based NodeMonkes collection achieved over $41 million in sales, marking an impressive 170% increase from the previous week. The Ordinals collection Natcats secured the fourth position for the week with sales exceeding $10 million.

NodeMonkes, a collection of 10,000 unique pixelated profile picture (PFP)-style Ordinals launched in December, asserts itself as the pioneer 10,000-strong collection on Bitcoin. Although other 10,000 count Ordinals collections existed earlier, the NodeMonkes team embedded their collection onto the blockchain in February 2023, merely a month after the Ordinals launch.

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On March 2, user “NFTstats” disclosed that NodeMonkes’ market capitalization surpassed $500 million, making it the third-largest PFP-style NFT collection across all blockchains, trailing only the Ethereum-based Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

The reasons behind NodeMonkes’ recent surge in attention remain unclear. Kevin Wu, the founder of NFT collection GRAYCRAFT, suggested in a February 22 post that NodeMonkes possesses “meaningful provenance” as the first PFP-style NFT collection on “the first chain ever.” This distinctive feature provides it with a “compelling narrative,” potentially attracting speculative investors.