Galaxy tips Bitcoin NFT market to reach $4.5 billion by 2025
In a “base case” scenario, Galaxy Digital’s research unit has tipped the burgeoning Bitcoin nonfungible token (NFT) market to reach a market value of $4.5 billion by March 2025.
Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, have attracted significant attention since the launch of the Ordinals protocol in late January, which allows users to enter data such as images, PDFs, video and audio at individual satoshis, or rate each representing 0.00000001 Bitcoin (BTC).
NFT giants like Yuga Labs have even jumped on the hype. On February 28, the $4 billion firm behind Bored Ape Yacht Club announced a Bitcoin-based NFT project called “TwelveFold,” marking a remarkable form of recognition of the Ordinals movement.
In a new report published in March. 3, Galaxy researchers analyzed the potential growth of Bitcoin NFTs and made estimates “conservatively based on the current size of Ethereum’s NFT market” and the rate of growth in recent years.
“While there are notable differences between inscriptions and NFTs, it’s fair to say that a native on-chain ecosystem for NFTs has emerged on Bitcoin in a way never before possible, and its use has exploded.”
The report provided three different market cap predictions based on the firm’s analysis, covering a bear case, a fundamental case and a bull case.
Looking at Galaxy’s baseline analysis, the report outlined that if Bitcoin NFTs can “expand into mainstream NFT culture like PFPs [Profile Pictures]memes and utility projects” the market value should increase to 4.5 billion dollars.
The researchers also noted that the $4.5 billion estimate is also based on “the rapid development in inscription awareness combined with the marketplace/wallet infrastructure already [being] out today.”
In a bear case, where Bitcoin NFTs are not creeping into the mainstream NFT market and prying market share away from Ethereum, Galaxy estimated that Bitcoin NFTs could still reach a market cap of $1.5 billion based on current interest levels and supporting infrastructure .
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On the positive side of things, Galaxy researchers estimate that the Bitcoin NFT market could reach around $10 billion if it manages to provide strong competition to Ethereum NFTs while also providing unique use cases.
At the time of the report, more than 250,000 Ordinals have hit the market, highlighting the importance and utility of Bitcoin NFTs, the researchers noted that:
“The addition of significant data storage with strong availability assurances opens up a range of use cases, many of which are just beginning to be explored, including things like new types of decentralized software or bitcoin scaling techniques. However, even the NFT use case alone has the potential to dramatically expand the scope of Bitcoin’s cultural impact.”
