Have you noticed? NFTs, declared dead by many in and out of crypto in late 2022, are back and buzzy. NFT sales jumped 38% in January compared to December, driven by Bored Apes; NFTs built on Bitcoin are buzzy and controversial right now, thanks to Ordinals; and even Bill Murray showed up to meet his NFT collectors at an event in San Diego—read and watch our exclusive interview with him. Enjoy your weekend!
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🥂 Cocktail party fodder
What’s the latest thing to rile up Bitcoin maximalists? It’s NFTs—or rather, Ordinals, a new way of putting media assets onto the Bitcoin blockchain. Counterparty and Stacks have both done “Bitcoin NFTs” in the past, albeit on platforms that are built on top of Bitcoin. Ordinals lets users “inscribe” content into individual satoshis (0.00000001 BTC) on Bitcoin’s own chain.
Ordinals are catching on: more than 1,000 have already been inscribed, but the added activity may be driving up Bitcoin transaction fees as a result.
💰 Coin of the Moment
Render Network’s RNDR token is this week’s big winner, nearly doubling in price over the past seven days. Supporters of the blockchain-based cloud rendering service—which is used by NFT icon Beeple, who’s also an advisor—are apparently pumped about the launch of a new foundation and the passage of a “burn-and-mint equilibrium” tokenomics model. RNDR is up 300% over the last month.
Kristin Smith is Executive Director of the Blockchain Association, which advocates for crypto policy in DC—an exhausting effort that Sam Bankman-Fried was closely involved in—until he set it on fire. Kristin tells Dan Roberts and Stacy Elliott how SBF and FTX set things back, but there are still positive signs from crypto friendly voices in Congress.
