This Week in the Metaverse: Bitcoin is upping its NFT game

by James · May 27, 2023

The Bitcoin blockchain is second only to Ethereum in NFT sales volume in the past week. Illustration of Fortune

(Some Fortune Crypto price data is provided by Binance.)

Welcome to This week in the Metaverse, where Fortune rounding up the most interesting news in the NFT world, culture and metaverse. Email [email protected] with tips.

Although long known for financial utility, the Bitcoin blockchain was never a player when it came to NFTs, which became one of the main use cases for Ethereum, followed later by Solana and Polygon.

But the Bitcoin network just surpassed Solana in NFT sales volume in the past seven days, now trailing only Ethereum, according to CryptoSlam. While some critics have said that Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, slow down the network and increase fees, supporters have said that the technology will improve the blockchain.

One such supporter is Bob Bodily, who works on an NFT marketplace for Ordinals called bioniq. Bodily told me that when the 10th Ordinal was entered earlier this year, he knew the technology was going to be huge. Two factors stand out to him as proof that Ordinals have even more room to grow: Bitcoin’s $518 billion market cap — still more than double Ethereum’s — and the fact that with Ordinals, all the data for an NFT is on-chain.

“A lot of collections are down pretty bad, and so the fact that you have the excitement and energy of Ordinals in the middle of a bear market, I think that’s pretty telling,” he said Fortune.

Already, he noted, Bitcoin is attracting developers who were originally Bitcoin advocates but found it difficult to build on the chain. He said he’s seen more developers start building on Bitcoin again after leaving years ago for Bitcoin Cash, which was created as a result of a developer dispute in 2017.

Decrypt reported Thursday that the network is also attracting developers from Ethereum, which has long been attractive to teams looking to build dapps that use smart contracts.

Ordinals have exploded in popularity, with 9.3 million inscriptions made since they were introduced in December, according to Dune. Soon enough, we’ll see if Ordinals have opened the door to a host of new applications for Bitcoin, or if it’s ultimately just another hype cycle.

New launch spotlight

Binance wants to facilitate your next NFT loan. With the Binance NFT Loan product announced this week, the world’s largest crypto exchange offers users 3.36% interest on loans, the amount of which can vary depending on the price floor of an NFT pledged as collateral. Only NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, and Doodles collections are currently accepted.

Last week I wrote about how NFT loans were making a comeback, thanks to upstart Blur and the more established Arcade. This announcement could accelerate that trend. At least for a limited time, the loan product has some of the best interest rates in the industry, and even lower than the national average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage, which was 7.17% as of Friday, according to Bankrate.

There is still risk. If the value of your NFT collateral falls too low, you risk liquidation. Your interest rate may also change based on the overall market, Binance warns.

In other news

Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinalsnow have a stablecoin. Stable USDissued by Web3 company Stably, says the crypto will make trading ordinals easier than it would be using US dollars or another fiat currency, CoinDesk reported.

Web3 company Element and Web3 agency Barry collaborated with Platinum Groupthe ticket operator for Formula 1 Grand Prix events, to launch a new platform offering NFT tickets. The NFT tickets are intended to prevent counterfeiting and act as digital souvenirs and will be introduced at this weekend’s race in Monaco. In the long term, the companies want to use the NFT tickets to give holders extra benefits and loyalty rewards.

Formula 1 will now have NFT tickets for its Grand Prix events.

Paris Hilton launched a collection of 5,555 NFT avatars this week for the Web3 metaverse platform The sandbox. Paris Hilton’s media company, 11:11 Media, created the avatars with inspiration from her real-life outfits and accessories. The avatars will be sold for 100 SAND each and released in three waves. The 11 people who purchase a limited 1-of-1 edition of the collectibles will receive a free ticket to Paris: Live in Concert on June 7.

Paris Hilton launched NFT avatars on The Sandbox metaverse platform.

SURREALISTICa company that provides “metaverse as a service” to clients such as the Atlanta Braves, introduced a consulting service called S-Map Consulting to help clients launch, maintain and expand their own virtual worlds.