Galaxy Digital's research team has published a report on the potential of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on Bitcoin, as the number of Bitcoin-based Ordinal inscriptions approaches 300,000. The report suggests that the market size of Bitcoin NFTs could reach $4.5 billion by 2025 due to new use cases arising from the inscription trend, driving interest and adoption for Bitcoin. The researchers believe that inscriptions significantly expand the design space for Bitcoin, opening up a variety of use-cases, including new types of decentralized software or Bitcoin scaling techniques.
Although the ecosystem is still young, the researchers note that infrastructure is emerging quickly, and the key building blocks for the technology will be wallets. The study also discusses the various collections minted in recent times, such as Taproot Wizards, Bitcoin Punks, and Ord Rocks, and highlights the controversy surrounding Ordinal inscriptions. The researchers believe that technical arguments against inscriptions are mostly mitigated, and a social movement to stop Ordinal inscriptions is unlikely. The report concludes that the emergence of inscriptions has the potential to evolve Bitcoin, driving new use cases, interest, and adoption.