The surge in demand for blockspace due to the Ordinals inscriptions trend is causing network transaction fees to skyrocket, impacting not only the Bitcoin network but also Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains.
EVM chains experienced a notable increase in inscriptions over the weekend, leading to a surge in gas fees. On December 16, gas spending on EVM inscriptions hit a record high of $8.3 million, according to data from Dune Analytics. Notably, the Avalanche network led the way with over $5.6 million in gas spent on inscriptions, followed by Arbitrum One with $2.1 million.
In the past 24 hours, EVM inscriptions accounted for 58% of network gas fees on Avalanche and 48% on zkSync Era. The BNB Chain also witnessed 73% of its transactions in the last 24 hours dedicated to inscriptions. The situation became so severe on the Arbitrum One network that it caused a 78-minute outage on December 15.
Similar to Ordinals on the Bitcoin network, EVM inscriptions involve embedding information in transaction call data to create unique nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on-chain.
The surge in inscriptions also affected the Bitcoin network, contributing to increased block space demand and transaction fees. Presently, there are almost 280,000 unconfirmed transactions, leading to transaction fees as high as $37. Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back suggested that Ordinals are unstoppable, and the high fees are driving adoption of layer-2 solutions, forcing innovation in the space.
NFT and Ordinals expert “Leonidas” highlighted on December 18 that a single collection surpassed the combined volume of CryptoPunks, BAYC, MAYC, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, DeGods, Moonbirds, Doodles, and Meebits in the past 24 hours. The Bitcoin Frogs Ordinals collection topped the market capitalization list at $182 million, with secondary sales reaching $4.8 million on December 17, according to CryptoSlam.
