The Bitcoin NFT ecosystem is rapidly developing, and the GBRC721 protocol is leading a new trend.

Recently, the development momentum of the Bitcoin NFT protocol Ordinals has been rapid. Data shows that the total number of inscriptions minted by Ordinals has surpassed 10 million, with cumulative transaction fee revenue reaching 1578.4611 BTC, approximately 44.14 million USD. Since the Ordinals protocol went live on the Bitcoin mainnet on January 30 of this year, its ecological development speed and the scale of expansion have been remarkable.

The surge in the number of inscriptions has directly led to a spike in Bitcoin network fees, which remain high. At the same time, a large number of creators have flocked to the Ordinals ecosystem, further intensifying the demand for Bitcoin block space. To address these issues, developers have been rolling out new protocols and standards, among which the GBRC721 protocol stands out.

The full name of the GBRC721 protocol is generative-brc-721, founded by Jerry. This protocol aims to optimize the utilization of block space, expecting to achieve an optimization effect of 50%-90%, thereby accommodating more creators and promoting innovation. GBRC721 also addresses the issue of project dependence on IPFS off-chain storage, enabling Bitcoin on-chain NFTs to achieve full-chain storage without relying on third-party retrieval support.

As GBRC721 is adopted by more platforms, users can directly view the actual images generated by the minted inscriptions on the front-end interface, rather than just displaying text data. The deployment and inscription process of this protocol is similar to that of BRC20 tokens, but due to the uniqueness of each collectible, developers are considering introducing an on-chain whitelist mechanism to ensure fair distribution.

Currently, the GBRC721 ecosystem has over 10,000 transactions, with a total fee of 1.68 BTC. The most representative project is OrdiBots. As the first demonstration project of the GBRC721 standard, OrdiBots is composed of 26 different feature combinations, with a total of 1,000 pieces. Through the GBRC721 standard, OrdiBots achieved approximately 55% block space savings.

OrdiBots completed its engraving from May 22 to 23, gaining significant attention and investment due to its innovation. Currently, the total trading volume of OrdiBots on major trading platforms has reached 26.8 BTC, with 350 holding addresses. The price surged from around $3 at the time of engraving to a peak of 0.12 BTC (approximately $3200), an increase of up to 1000 times. OrdiBots currently has a market capitalization of about $2.1 million. Although there is still a gap compared to leading projects like Bitcoin Frogs, its growth potential should not be underestimated.

The success of OrdiBots is inseparable from the strong consensus of its community. The project has gained widespread attention by auctioning gold ornaments daily and distributing the profits to community members. Community members have also voluntarily developed tools such as rarity queries and holding rankings, and actively interacted with other ecological projects to empower holders.

Another GBRC721 ecological project worth paying attention to is OrdiBlocks. Launched by DogePunks, OrdiBlocks completed its inscription on May 29, with a total of 666 pieces. Driven by OrdiBots, the minting popularity of OrdiBlocks is very high, with each collectible being inscribed more than 4-5 times. Currently, the price of OrdiBlocks has risen from the minting cost of 3 dollars to 90 dollars, with a total transaction volume reaching 60,000 dollars and a unique holding address of 223.

The GBRC721 protocol has garnered attention due to the remarkable surge of OrdiBots, but its ecological infrastructure still needs improvement. For example, some mainstream trading platforms have yet to support the actual image display of inscriptions under the GBRC721 standard. Ecological projects must continuously build and expand consensus while community enthusiasm is high, to avoid being merely a flash in the pan.

From a broader perspective, the Ordinals protocol has transformed the Bitcoin ecosystem from niche to hotspot in just four months, with market attention on Bitcoin ecosystem projects comparable to the DeFi summer of 2020. Developers are continuously launching new protocols and standards to address existing challenges and constraints.

Although there are still skeptics regarding the applications running on Bitcoin, in the current context dominated by concepts and stories in the Web3 space, the Ordinals protocol has opened up a new track for the market, potentially bringing unexpected opportunities. As the ecosystem continues to develop and improve, the future direction of the Bitcoin NFT space is worth looking forward to.