In a “base case” scenario, Galaxy Digital’s research unit tipped the booming Bitcoin non-fungible token (NFT) market to reach a market capitalization of $4.5 billion by March. 2025.
Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, have attracted considerable attention since the launch of the Ordinals protocol in late January, allowing users to write data such as images, video and audio PDFs onto individual satoshis, or sats that represent each 0.00000001 Bitcoin (BTC).
NFT giants such as Yuga Labs have even jumped on the hype. On February 28, the $4 billion company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club announced a Bitcoin-based NFT project dubbed “TwelveFold,” marking a notable form of recognition for the Ordinals movement.
In a new report published in March. 3, Galaxy researchers analyzed the potential growth of Bitcoin NFTs and made estimates “conservatively based on the current size of the Ethereum NFT market” and its growth rate over the past few years.
“While there are notable differences between listings and NFTs, it is fair to say that a native on-chain ecosystem for NFTs has emerged on Bitcoin in a way that has never been possible before, and its usage exploded.”
The report provided three different market cap forecasts based on the company’s analysis, covering a bearish scenario, a base scenario, and a bullish scenario.
Looking at Galaxy’s core analysis, the report pointed out that while Bitcoin NFTs can “expand into mainstream NFT culture like PFPs (Profile Pictures), memes, and utility projects,” the market capitalization should reach $4.5 billion.
The researchers also noted that the $4.5 billion projection is also based on the “rapid development of listing awareness coupled with the market/portfolio infrastructure already available today.”
Fantastic looking piece of @intangiblecoins To @galaxyhq on the rise of Bitcoin Ordinals:
– Reference market of 4.5 billion dollars
– Help with bitcoin fee market
– Increase design space for smart contractsLearn more here
— Dan Held (@danheld) March 3, 2023
In a bearish case, in which Bitcoin NFTs do not creep into the mainstream NFT market and hijack Ethereum’s market share, Galaxy estimated that Bitcoin NFTs can still reach a market cap of 1.5 billion. dollars depending on the current level of interest and supporting infrastructure. .
Related: Total Crypto Market Cap Takes a Hit Amid Silvergate Bank Crisis
On the bullish side of things, Galaxy researchers estimate that the Bitcoin NFT market could reach around $10 billion if it manages to provide strong competition to Ethereum NFTs, while offering unique use cases.
At the time of the report, over 250,000 ordinals were in the market, and highlighting the importance and usefulness of Bitcoin NFTs, the researchers noted that:
“Adding large data storage with strong uptime guarantees opens up a variety of use cases, many of which are only just beginning to be explored, including things like new types of decentralized software or staking techniques. Even the NFT use case alone, however, has the potential to greatly expand the scope of Bitcoin’s cultural impact.
Bitcoin’s dark ages are over
Fun is back on the menu, boys pic.twitter.com/ybk5NKObmB
– Eric Wall ♂️ Taproot Wizard #2 (@ercwl) March 3, 2023
