The NFTs tied to the Bitcoin blockchain saw a massive spike in popularity in the second quarter of the year, increasing by a significant 2,834% compared to Q1. Thanks to the surge in popularity of Ordinals, Bitcoin has now surpassed Solana to become the second-most popular NFT blockchain.

Ordinals Registered $210.7M in Trading Volume in Q2

According to a new report from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar, Bitcoin Ordinals registered $210.7 million in trading volume in the year’s second quarter. By comparison, these tokens had a volume of just around $7.18 million in Q1, representing a 2,834% quarterly increase.

The report also mentioned that all-time Bitcoin Ordinals trades amounted to 554,215 in Q2, with more than 150,000 unique traders contributing to the inflated trading volume. DappRadar said this highlights “the platform’s broadening reach and the growing interest among new traders in this digital asset.”

Likewise, a Dune dashboard shows that more than 15 million Ordinals have been inscribed to the Bitcoin network, bringing around $54 million in fees for miners.

The Ordinals project has not come without controversy. Bitcoin purists have been critical of the Ordinals project, arguing that it could price out the actual financial activity and thus damage Bitcoin’s image as a reliable P2P payments network.

On the other hand, supporters of the protocol have claimed that it can attract more people and extend the Bitcoin network’s use cases. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has said Ordinals have revived the “builder culture” of the network.

“Ordinals are starting to bring back a culture of actually doing things. It feels like there’s real pushback to the laser-eye movement, which is good,” Buterin said in a recent Twitter Space.

Notably, the popularity of Bitcoin NFTs has also caused the network to become congested. Around 500,000 unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions in the mempool were waiting to be added to a block at one point in May. The congestion also pushed up the average Bitcoin fee, which hit a record high of over $30 on May 8.

NFT Market Drops, But There’s Still Some Interest

While Bitcoin Ordinals saw a sharp spike in popularity last quarter, the broader NFT market continued its downtrend. According to the DappRadar report, NFT trading volume reached $2.9 billion in the year’s second quarter, a 38% decline compared to the previous quarter.

“However, it is critical to avoid equating trading volume with the level of market excitement,” the report said. “A dip in trading volume doesn’t necessarily indicate a waning of market interest or activity. This is evidenced by the fact that in Q2, there were still 18.6 million sales, representing a decrease of 9.2%.”

The report also showed Blur, now the biggest NFT marketplace, saw a slump in the quarter, with a 34% decline in trading volume. OpenSea, the dominant market for a long time, suffered even more, seeing its trading volume drop by more than 56%.

However, Immutable X Marketplace and JPG Store bucked the trend, displaying impressive growth in their trading volumes by 37% and 64%, respectively. This suggests “a positive outlook for these platforms amid a challenging market environment,” the report said.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin is trading at $30,170, down by 3% over the past day. However, the flagship cryptocurrency is up by more than 13% over the past month and by 81% YTD.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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