Bitcoin’s BRC-20 token standard has gained popularity in the crypto world, especially with the success of memecoins like Pepe (PEPE) and Memetic (MEME), resulting in the creation of over 8,500 different tokens.
The BRC-20 is an experimental token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain modeled after Ethereum’s ERC-20, which enables developers to create fungible tokens using the Ordinals protocol. However, unlike ERC-20, BRC-20 tokens do not rely on smart contracts and require a Bitcoin wallet for minting and trading.
The BRC-20 token standard was created by an anonymous on-chain analyst known as Domo in March to enable fungible tokens to be issued and transferred on the Bitcoin blockchain. The market cap of BRC-20 tokens has grown exponentially in the past month, reaching $120 million, a 600% rise in the past week.
The BRC-20 token frenzy has surpassed the number of Bitcoin transactions on the blockchain. Between April 29 and May 2, BRC-20 transactions accounted for over 50% of all transactions on the network, with a peak volume of 366,000 transactions on May 1 out of a total of 2.36 million.
The surge in BRC-20 transactions has led to an increase in transaction fees, generating an additional 109.7 BTC in fees for miners since the network’s inception in late April.
The memecoin craze, which has been a popular trend on the Ethereum blockchain, is now also observed on the Bitcoin blockchain with the rise of the BRC-20 standard. However, this development has also led to rising gas fees, causing network congestion on the Ethereum network.
