The Ordinals protocol, initially developed by Casey Rodarmor to “inscribe” text and images on the Bitcoin network, has now expanded to Litecoin and Dogecoin, leading to a surge in transaction volume on those chains for almost a month.
BitInfoCharts data shows that on May 18, Dogecoin set a new transaction volume record, with 1.2 million transactions in a single 24-hour period. Similarly, on May 10, Litecoin recorded its highest-ever daily transaction volume with 584,000 transactions.
The Ordinals protocol was first introduced to Litecoin after an anonymous Twitter user, Indigo Nakamoto, offered 5 LTC (worth approximately $500 at the time) to anyone who could “port” the protocol to the Litecoin network.
On February 19, software engineer Anthony Guerrera successfully launched the Litecoin Ordinals protocol, eight days after its creation. Similarly, Dogecoin enthusiasts developed the “Doginals” protocol by copying the Ordinals protocol to achieve the same functionality.
However, the introduction of the LRC-20 and DRC-20 token standards in early May on Litecoin and Dogecoin, respectively, was the primary driving force behind the networks’ increased activity. These standards enabled users to create and issue new memecoins on the two networks.
The surge in activity on LTC and DOGE coincided with the Ordinals inscription on the Bitcoin network, which reached a record 400,000 daily inscriptions on May 10.
This increase in Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions can be attributed to the introduction of the BRC-20 token standard, which has resulted in over 24,000 new tokens being minted on the Bitcoin blockchain, according to data from Ordinals scanner brc-20.io.