Launched in January 2023, Bitcoin Ordinals took the crypto space by storm. In only two weeks, participants had inscribed over 122,000. Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, said he had no idea they would explode back then.

"I thought I was building something good, and I thought I was meeting an unmet market demand that NFT collectors had expressed a desire for," Rodarmor told TechCrunch a month after he released his invention.

"My theory on why this blew up is that [the community] saw this controversy, but then they saw exactly what they wanted — on-chain, immutable NFTs that are there forever. Like, fuck yeah, sign me up," he added in that same interview.

Today, there are nearly 67 million inscriptions, and despite the resistance they might have faced in their early days, now even financial giants praise them.

Franklin Templeton, a global asset manager with over $2 trillion from investors, commented on the rise of these curious creations, saying activity within the Bitcoin NFT space is accelerating and dominating the entire non-fungible token ecosystem.

"Bitcoin Ordinals have seen a surge in trading volume over the past several months. This is reflected in an increase in dominance starting in December of 2023 when it surpassed ETH in trading volume," said Franklin Templeton on X (formerly Twitter).

The financial institution noted that Rodarmor initiated the Ordinal phenomenon. His protocol, which assigns a specific number to each fraction of Bitcoin, or Satoshi, gave rise to a new approach. This "ordinal theory" quickly gained popularity, fueling interest and activity in the NFT markets.

From amid the Ordinal frenzy came a collection that alludes to the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Destruction Breeds Creation

On Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Whitepaper release's 15th anniversary (October 31, 2023), an anonymous creator inscribed 111 unique and captivating Ordinals alongside an image with a poem paying homage to the Bitcoin creator or creators entitled "Destruction Breeds Creation."

Since then, Bitcoin enthusiasts have shared the anti-banking system sentiment and the belief that all fiat currencies are worthless because governments print notes and mint coins arbitrarily and indiscriminately.

In stark contrast, Nakamoto programmed BTC to have a limited supply (21 million bitcoins) that no nation-state or government body could manipulate.

The new anonymously inscribed Ordinals collection immediately created an environment surrounded by mystery, similar to Satoshi Nakamoto, who vanished into the ether without a trace and left everyone speculating whether it was an individual, female or male, or a group. A message against fiat currencies Anonymous child inscriptions sit on Ord.io. They are full of symbolism and openly reject the establishment and its ill-conceived control over money. The creators burned 100 x $100 bills, 10 x $10 bills, and 1 x $1 bill in the name of 'Bitcoin Art'.

Because they've assigned more significant value to the $1 bill than to the $100 bill, TH3FUS3 has deduced that these Ordinals' creators want the U.S. Federal Reserve to know that the money they print and mint is worthless.

Their message has landed at the most reasonable time, and their popularity is again picking up pace. That shows promise for BTC, its network, OGs, purists, and regular users.