December 2023 witnesses unprecedented surge in NFT sales on Bitcoin
Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin (BTC) network reached a staggering $881 million in December 2023, setting a new record for single-month sales. The data comes from the Cryptoslam portal, which also reported that a record-breaking 111,713 buyer addresses participated in NFT transactions on the Bitcoin chain during the same month. At the same time, the number of merchant addresses reached an all-time high of 98,744.
In comparison, the total sales of NFTs on the Ethereum (ETH) network amounted to $364.79 million in December. This means that BTC-focused NFTs outsold ETH NFTs by a factor of 2.34.
One notable transaction in December was the sale of a digital copy of Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 self-portrait (Van Gogh painting #216), which fetched an impressive $1.19 million. Additionally, the Ethereum platform hosted the sale of the Frxethredemption Ticket #33 token, which was priced at $638,433.
The month also saw Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr expressing his concerns about the use of Inscriptions, the basis of the Ordinals protocol, as a cause for spam on the network. Dashjr predicted that the use of Inscriptions would soon come to an end. However, his statements were met with criticism and questions from the community, who debated the appropriateness of censoring the blockchain through such methods. Some users argued that miners would prefer to mine transactions with Inscriptions due to their economic advantages.
Overall, the booming sales of NFTs on the Bitcoin network and the ongoing debates surrounding blockchain censorship highlight the growing significance and impact of these digital assets in the crypto market.
