The popularity of NFT on the Bitcoin network is increasing, according to a report by the BitMEX exchange

The demand for non-fungible tokens is growing.

Data provided in a report from the BitMEX exchange shows that the popularity of NFTs minted on the Bitcoin blockchain has increased recently. Cryptocurrency market analysts have noticed that the interest in non-fungible tokens is still clearly noticeable. According to the BitMEX research department, within a few weeks, the sudden influx of JPEG and multimedia files into the BTC network consumed 526 megabytes (MB) of block space and cost the creators about 6.77 BTC.

The popularity of NFT on the Bitcoin network is growing, BitMEX reports

The research department belonging to a well-known cryptocurrency derivatives exchange has identified over 13,000 non-exchangeable tokens in the network of the oldest cryptocurrency. BitMEX analysts shared their observations about NFT's rise in popularity in a report published on their blog.

According to the data, from the debut of Ordinals, which took place on December 14, 2022, to February 7, 2023, several thousand NFTs were minted. Within a few weeks, the influx of JPEG and multimedia files into the Bitcoin network consumed 526 MB of block space. What's more, it cost the creators 6.77 BTC (over $ 153 thousand at the current exchange rate of the leading cryptocurrency of $ 22.7 thousand).

The growing popularity of Ordinals has outraged some Bitcoin enthusiasts. They accused this project of spamming the most dominant blockchain with JPEG files. In their opinion, this is how people waste precious BTC block space.

One observer of this situation stated that Bitcoin's anti-spam mechanism is fees in a limited block space. If users have paid it, it means they are not spamming the network.

Another member of the community stated that he did not understand why anyone would pay high fees for using the blockchain of a leading cryptocurrency when they can store similar files almost for free using many cheaper networks.

It is worth noting that although Ordinals' involvement in total BTC transactions on Wednesday exceeded barely 3%, it consumed nearly 70% of Bitcoin's block space.