Bitcoin has stealthily muscled its way into the NFT top three, crossing the 100 million inscription mark and closing in on $6 billion in total sales. While the broader market has moved on to the next shiny object, Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol continues to hum in the background like a degen mining rig in a basement. Since its debut in late 2022, the protocol has allowed users to etch images, text, and other data directly onto individual satoshis using Taproot transactions—essentially writing graffiti on the most precious digital real estate. By January 2026, the total count had surpassed 117 million inscriptions, proving that Bitcoiners are just as obsessed with collecting JPEGs as anyone else, they just do it with more scowling.
Miners collected an estimated 7,092 BTC in inscription fees, with the bulk of that revenue arriving around the fourth Bitcoin halving—essentially getting a surprise bonus when everyone expected a pay cut. Activity has cooled significantly since, like a party after the main act leaves, but the money was already made. On the sales front, Bitcoin has overtaken legacy NFT chains like Ronin, Polygon, and Flow, which now look like the dinosaurs staring at the asteroid. With $5.8 billion in total sales, it sits behind only Ethereum and Solana, the two titans of the space. Over the past month, sales jumped 88%, reaching $62 million, because apparently, when the market gets quiet, Bitcoin NFTs get loud.
The irony is stark: NFTs have largely vanished from mainstream crypto conversation, yet Bitcoin has quietly become a major player in the sector—without celebrity drops or retail frenzy. Whether this is a durable foundation or a historical footnote remains to be seen, but for now, the king of crypto is minting its own legacy on the blockchain, one satoshi at a time.
