The Ordi token (ORDI) quickly crossed the symbolic milestone of a billion dollars in capitalization, only 9 months after its launch. The first crypto of its kind BRC-20 based on Ordinals technology, it crystallizes both the hopes of new functionalities for Bitcoin and the fears of some regarding the preservation of its founding principles.
ORDI, first BRC-20 token to exceed $1 billion
ORDI is a memecoin on the Bitcoin blockchain, playing a pioneering role as the first-ever BRC-20 token made possible through the Ordinals protocol.
Launched in March 2023, Ordi quickly attracted attention. Thus, its pioneering status among BRC-20 tokens, coupled with the fever of NFTs and collectibles directly published on Bitcoin via Ordinals, have earned it increasing visibility and liquidity.
Furthermore, its introduction on the main centralized exchange platforms including Binance in spring 2023 truly marked the starting point of its takeoff. In the space of a few months, the ORDI price went from around $6 in May to a historic peak of $65 in early December, an increase of more than 10 in 8 months. Her capitalization At the same time, the stock market exceeded 1.3 billion dollars.
At the time of writing, ORDI is trading around $70, with a daily trading volume of $1.7 billion. ORDI has a total supply capped at 21 million units, echoing the maximum supply of Bitcoin.
What is a BRC-20 token?
Inspired by the Ethereum ERC-20 standard, BRC-20 tokens allow the creation of crypto assets exchangeable on the Bitcoin blockchain. Thanks to the Ordinals protocol developed by Casey Rodarmor, it is possible to directly write data (text, images, audio, video) into each “satoshi”, the smallest unit of the network.
We can thus mint tokens or NFTs whose characteristics are encapsulated in a satoshi, like an ERC-20 smart contract. ORDI served as a precursor to test and demonstrate these unique capabilities.
Innovation or betrayal? The debate agitates the community
Despite its success, the Ordinals process behind ORDI sparks controversy among Bitcoin developers. Influential figures like Luke Dashjr see this as a misuse of the network, harmful to its scalability. They call the added data “spam” and call for this “vulnerability” to be fixed.
Others, on the contrary, see in Ordinals the opportunity to enrich the Bitcoin ecosystem and attract new uses for Bitcoin. It is this potential which partly explains the speculative success encountered by Ordi.
Because Ordi does not as such represent a breakthrough technological or economic innovation. Its rise is mainly based on the novelty of the Ordinals concept, of which it is the first realization. Therefore, some question its long-term viability once the hype has died down.
In short, the Ordi case symbolizes both the promises and the limits of this controversial technology. If the BRC-20 token is on the rise, their alignment with the decentralizing ethics of Bitcoin remains subject to discussion.
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