Bitcoin Takes the World by Storm with Record-Breaking Activity
The world of cryptocurrency has been buzzing with excitement as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) surges to new heights in 2023. As the price of the leading cryptocurrency continues to rally, there have been notable changes happening within the Bitcoin network as well. The average daily block size of Bitcoin has seen a significant increase, especially in the month of February, and is now at a three-year high, according to data from OKLink.
BTC Average daily block size reaches 2 MB, a 3-year high
According to OKLink data, the daily average block size of Bitcoin reached 2,021,079.56 (about 2 MB) yesterday, a new high in three years.
View more data: https://t.co/fYm281p6Hw pic.twitter.com/fKI2qrRjra— OKLink (@OKLink) February 7, 2023
The Rise of Ordinal Inscriptions
Pierre Rochard, the Vice President of Research at mining firm Riot Platforms, pointed out that the current block space utilization of the Bitcoin network is running at 100% due to the rise of Ordinal Inscriptions. Ordinal Inscriptions are a type of Bitcoin-native Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that allow people to associate data, such as JPEGs, with individual sats. Rochard also revealed that Ordinal Inscriptions are currently consuming 50% of the Bitcoin block space, which has caused the median fee rate to drop.
This rise in NFT usage can be attributed to the largest block ever recorded on the Bitcoin network, which was mined by Luxor Mining on February 1st, 2023. The block was approximately 3.96 MB and was created due to the minting of NFTs using Ordinals by Udi Wertheimer.
Taproot Adoption Reaches ATH at 7.47%
The on-chain data platform Glassnode has also reported a significant rise in spent outputs associated with Taproot, a privacy-enhancing technology for Bitcoin transactions. In the first week of February, over 2.8% of all spent outputs utilized the Taproot script, compared to just 1% in mid-January. This surge in Taproot activity has led to a record high in the Taproot Adoption metric, which is now at 7.47%, and Taproot Utilization, which is at 2.84%.
The price of Bitcoin has seen a rally of over 40% since the start of the year, with the price currently trading at $22,954, a nearly 1% increase in the last 24 hours. The 24-hour low and high are $22,692 and $23,119, respectively, and the trading volume has increased by 15% in the last 24 hours, indicating a growing interest in the cryptocurrency.
Powell’s Upcoming Speech
As the crypto community awaits the speech of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, traders are closely monitoring the situation and planning their next move for the coming weeks. With Bitcoin’s recent growth and the rise of NFTs, the world of cryptocurrency continues to be a hot topic, attracting more investors and driving up the value of the leading cryptocurrency.
