Ethereum [ETH] memes unwind: Does Bitcoin’s BRC-20 wield the baton now

• BRC-20’s support for fungible tokens resulted in the birth of meme tokens.
• The crypto community called for lightning network adoption to solve the Bitcoin network jam. 

The emergence of the BRC-20 token standard may have opened up new possibilities for the Bitcoin [BTC] network. Just a few days ago, traders were confident that Bitcoin’s limitation in allowing fungibility on its network would ensure that the meme token arena would not expand to it.

How much are 1,10,100 BTCs worth today?

But BRC-20, which only allowed the deployment of non-fungible smart contracts on the Bitcoin network, had changed that notion. At press time, over 14,000 tokens had been created under the token economy.

The BRC-20 standard, which is still in its early stages, saw incredible growth since supporting the minting of Bitcoin Ordinals and Inscriptions. The experiment, which only began around 8 March, with its first mint phase around 4 April, has now fully added the functionality to create tokens.

Memes scaling the market cap like it’s nothing

Since it was the period for meme tokens to flourish, most of the assets created via the network seemed like duplicates of the cryptocurrencies that have been making waves on Ethereum [ETH].

But it is noteworthy to point out that the memes created under the Ethereum network might be winding down their dominance. Recently, long positions on some of these assets suffered liquidation. So, could it be Bitcoin’s turn to light up the market?

According to BRC-20.io, some of the created tokens include Oshi, xing, ordi, and pepe — a different token from the hyped-up ERC-20-based Pepe [PEPE]. These assets have performed exceptionally, driving the overall BRC-20 market capitalization above $550 million.

Source: BRC-20.io

The hike in market capitalization means that the token developers have ensured supply distribution, coupled with price allocation. Before, the meme mint phase, which surfaced around the last week of April, produced an All-Time High (ATH) in daily inscriptions count. 

Over the last week of April, nearly every day saw #Ordinal Inscription counts eclipse previous all-time high daily inscription counts. pic.twitter.com/dIFOhprPA4

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) May 7, 2023

Bitcoin: Backlogs and a possible headway

Meanwhile, Dune Analytics showed that Bitcoin’s network had gained from the progress made by the BRC-20 standard. At press time, the total fees generated by the network had increased to 382.47 BTC. This was a result of the rise in transactions, made possible by the memes, which were as much as 320,673.

Source: Dune Analytics

Like Ethereum, Bitcoin transactions have experienced a surge in transaction fees lately. But it did not end there. The network has had to deal with a backlog of transactions that have yet to pass confirmation at press time.

This traffic could, again, be linked to the surge in the thousands of BRC-20 transactions. As it was reported before, Glassnodes’ data showed that the resolve to pass through Taproot had also contributed a part.

Taproot collates batches of transactions and signatures together to make transactions faster on the Bitcoin network. When this happens, it means block sizes would increase, and transaction costs would follow. 

According to mempool.space, there were over 450,000 unconfirmed transactions. And it would require about 192 blocks to clear the clogging. But with an average block time of 10.5 minutes, it could take more than a day to achieve. 

Source: mempool.space

Realistic or not, here’s ETH’s market cap in BTC’s terms

Following the event, many clamored for exchanges and self-custody providers to adopt the Bitcoin lightning network. Although considered highly priced, the feature solves the congestion issues faced by the network.

For instance, Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer at Tether [USDT], and Bitfinex encouraged other platforms to take the same step.

#bitcoin fees are high? It's time to ask your exchange to support Lightning Network ⚡⚡@bitfinex supports it since 2019

— Paolo Ardoino ? (@paoloardoino) May 7, 2023