BRC-20 tokens, a new type of cryptocurrency, can be created and traded on the Bitcoin blockchain. Inspired by Ethereum's ERC-20 standard, BRC-20 tokens use a unique protocol called Ordinals, which allows data to be inscribed on satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. Since their introduction in March 2023 by an anonymous developer named Domo, BRC-20 tokens have grown exponentially, with a market cap exceeding $1.35 billion as of November 2023.
BRC-20 tokens are digital assets inscribed directly onto satoshis using the Ordinals innovation. Unlike traditional tokens stored on separate blockchains, BRC-20 tokens use the Taproot upgrade on the Bitcoin blockchain to inscribe their data. This allows BRC-20 tokens to operate as experimental fungible tokens on the Bitcoin base chain, deploying, minting, and transferring tokens using JSON data inscribed as Ordinals.
Read all about what BRC-20 tokens are and the top BRC-20 tokens by market cap.
The introduction of BRC-20 tokens has led to a proliferation of BRC-20 projects, with many emerging since March 2023. The BRC-20 tracking platform, ordiscan.com, currently boasts over 38 million BRC-20 inscriptions. Since their launch, there have been over 33 million BRC-20 transactions on the Bitcoin network, accounting for transaction fees of over 1,300 BTC till November 2023.
