Bitcoin (BTC) fees are in the spotlight once again, having approached a $6 average transaction charge for the first time since June.
A recent uptick in NFT trading volumes appears to be the culprit, with ‘Ordinals’ inscriptions causing congestion on the bitcoin blockchain, thus pumping up gas fees.
As noted by Cointelegraph, nearly one million Ordinals NFTs have been minted on the bitcoin ledger in the past seven days.
Ordinals caused a stir when earlier this year, coder Codey Rodarmor figured out how to store NFTs on the bitcoin ledger, something the network was never designed to do.
Transaction fees spiralled out of control in May, surging nearly 1,000% in a matter of weeks after millions upon millions of Ordinals NFTs flooded the bitcoin network.
While this week’s spike in transaction fees pales in comparison, it comes with frustration for users trying to use bitcoin as a traditional payment rail.
As for bitcoin spot prices, the BTC/USDT pair remains steadily above $34,800, after closing 0.1% higher on Monday before dipping half a percentage point this morning.
Bitcoin is showing signs of reduced volatility this month, following October’s double-digit surge in spot prices.
Yet the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains one of the best-performing asset classes in 2023, having gained over 110% year to date.
Bitcoin’s strong 2023 performance – Source: tradingview.com
Ethereum (ETH) closed Monday half a percentage point higher, though a sluggish Tuesday morning has brought the second-largest cryptoasset more than 1% lower to $1,881 at the time of writing.
In the broader altcoin space, Ripple (XRP) has emerged as the top-performing blue chip in place of Solana.
XRP is up over 20% week on week in anticipation of developer Ripple Labs’ pending victory in its long-running dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Cardano (ADA) is also on the move, adding over 17% week on week.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.32 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 52.6%.
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