Ethereum, for the longest time, has remained the top blockchain of choice for digital artists and NFT creators to host their Web3 content on. The Bitcoin blockchain is now picking pace in competing with Ethereum to make a significant mark on the NFT sector. Over the last month, the sales of NFTs based on Bitcoin marked a significant surge. With this, the Bitcoin blockchain became second on the list naming top blockchains to have emerged in the recent times, with Ethereum leading the list.

Bitcoin-backed NFTs managed to garner around $173.28 million in revenue in the last thirty days, a report by Bitcoin.com said, citing CryptoSlam.IO insights.

An energy intensive proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain, Bitcoin specially supports the Ordinals category of NFTs. When an NFT is inscribed on one Satoshi unit of the Bitcoin blockchain, it gets classified as an Ordinal NFT. Satoshi, named after Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, is the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.

The Ordinals classification of NFTs is an up-and-coming category of NFTs that exploded in popularity after BAYC parent Yuga Labs announced its own Ordinals NFT collection called TwelveFold in March this year.

BTC miners, who validated Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, managed to collect fees worth BTC 1,495 as of May 24. At a point, when BTC is trading at $26,077, the amount that Ordinals validators made comes to $40.2 million.

Nine out of the highest valued NFTs sold in recent weeks were supported by the Bitcoin blockchain.

Ordinals NFT collections like Space Pepes, Bitcoin Frogs, and $NALS NFTs reportedly managed to fetch $12.2 million, $9.8 million, and $6.8 million, respectively.

With these staggering revenue collections via Ordinals NFTs, Bitcoin has surpassed usually preferred blockchains like Polygon and Solana in terms of capturing the digital collectibles market share.

As opposed to Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana — all of which are eco-friendly and green blockchains, Bitcoin is an energy-intensive blockchain that requires loads of electricity and advanced computers for miners to validate transactions and add newer blocks to the blockchain.

In recent weeks, NFT marketplaces like Binance NFT and Magic Eden have added support for the trade and sale of Ordinals NFTs. The OKX crypto exchange is also reportedly planning to debut its NFT marketplace that will support Ordinals NFTs.

Meanwhile, Ethereum continues to be the reigning regent of the NFT kingdom.

Ethereum-based NFT sales bagged a whopping $392 million in the last 30 days.

Solana and Polygon NFTs, on the other hand, managed to pull in $53.7 million and $27 million (roughly Rs. 223 crore) in sales over the last month.