Author: Mia, ChainCatcher
As the US interest rate hike cycle gradually comes to an end, the global financial markets are beginning to recover, and the cryptocurrency market is no exception. With the strong market expectations for the approval of Bitcoin spot trading by the US SEC, the wealth effect of Bitcoin is becoming increasingly significant. The price of Bitcoin has risen from $16,500 at the beginning of the year to $44,000, and the influx of funds brought about by the rise in token prices has also led the Bitcoin ecosystem to enter a period of rapid development once again. This has sparked a wave of enthusiasm for inscription assets such as BRC20 and Ordinals ARC20 on the Bitcoin and other chains. Of course, as an "indispensable part" of the cryptocurrency market, AICoin will certainly not miss the opportunity to seize the new blue ocean of cryptocurrency.
On the 12th of this month, Binance officially launched the BRC-20 project Sats (1000SATS) and added a seed label to it, making it the second inscription asset to be listed on Binance after ORDI in November. With the blessing of this inscription asset, the inscription market has entered an era of "mass FOMO," and a new era of "chaotic dance of demons" has arrived. According to Dune data, as of December 26th, the cumulative fee income generated by the inscription minted under the Ordinals protocol has exceeded 5,000 BTC, equivalent to approximately $215,697,899. The current total minted inscription quantity has reached nearly 52 million. In addition, according to the chart, after April 2023, Ordinals inscription assets still maintain a high minting volume, which fully demonstrates the enthusiasm of on-chain players for inscription.
Although the on-chain data is so, centralized exchanges as secondary market players appear to be particularly passive. Due to the "Fair Launch" method adopted by inscription assets, where users can directly participate in fair minting without pre-participation by VCs, investors have more say. Under these conditions, traditional centralized exchanges have lost their unique advantages. Faced with an increasingly rigid landscape of centralized exchanges, there is no doubt that the broad blue ocean market of inscription assets has become a new breakthrough to break the deadlock. So, how can centralized exchanges seize the market and regain their voice in this "inscription war"? How far can the inscription reform of centralized exchanges go?
OKX
According to data, influenced by Bitcoin Ordinals trading, the daily trading volume of the OKX NFT Marketplace exceeded $50 million on December 18th, surpassing Blur ($13.21 million), Magic Eden, and OpenSea, making it the NFT market with the largest daily trading volume. This growth is attributed to OKX's strategic support for BRC-20 and Bitcoin Ordinals. Undoubtedly, OKX's Web3 wallet's keen market sense has made it a leader in this "inscription war."
In fact, as early as May of this year, the BRC-20 concept began to emerge with its "first come, first served" mechanism, and a large amount of funds from the meme coin craze began to flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem. The minting and trading activities of BRC-20 began to flourish. As of May 18, 2023, there were already 24,677 BRC-20 tokens with a total market value of $466 million. Ordi has the highest market value, accounting for 66.7% of the total market value of BRC-20.
As an early supporter and builder of the Bitcoin ecosystem, OKX early on sensed the "wealth code" within it and became the "first crab eater" among many CEXs. On May 16th, OKX also announced the Bitcoin ecosystem roadmap for its Web3 wallet. According to the roadmap, the OKX Web3 wallet will launch the BRC-20 trading market, support the trading of BRC20 tokens, BTC cross-chain swaps, and support the minting of Ordinals inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens, Ordinals NFT trading, STX Staking (BTC layer 2), and BRC20 Staking at the end of May and beginning of June. This also made the OKX Web3 wallet the first multi-chain wallet to support Ordinals.
According to Dune data, the total trading volume of the OKX Web3 wallet's Ordinals market has reached nearly $1 billion, reaching $979,501,762. Compared to the total trading volume of the Ordinals protocol, which is close to $2.15 billion, this accounts for approximately 45%. In addition, other data for the OKX Ordinals market is also very impressive, with a total of 484,791 transactions and 107,507 unique addresses, making the OKX Web3 wallet's Ordinals market the largest BRC20 inscription and BTC NFT trading market.
With the development of the inscription concept, the inscription market is also showing a flourishing trend in the multi-chain ecosystem. The inscription track has expanded from the Bitcoin ecosystem to include other ecosystems such as Arbitrum, Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Polygon, and even some previously dormant on-chain ecosystems such as Fantom and Dfinity, which have also seen the emergence of some inscription projects. This has prompted OKX to develop towards the multi-chain field. Currently, the OKX Web3 wallet's inscription tool has added support for chains such as Mantle, Celo, Metis, Klaytn Gnosis Chain, Goerli, and Sepolia, totaling support for 22 public chains. According to official information, through the OKX Web3 wallet's inscription tool, users can choose text mode or hexadecimal mode to engrave single or multiple texts in batches, and the support for multiple chains also makes OKX the leader in the inscription market.
Binance
As a leading exchange in the CEX first tier, Binance appears to be somewhat inferior in this wave of "inscription competition." Compared to OKX's bold attempts, Binance's performance in the inscription field is very conservative. It has only successively listed Ordinals (ORDI) and Sats (1000SATS), and on the 2nd, it listed the BRC-20 project Sats (1000SATS) and 1000SATS 1-50x perpetual contracts. In terms of Web3 wallet support for inscriptions, Binance has not shown any indication. Regarding this, Binance co-founder He Yi stated: "The criticism of Binance's Web3 wallet being not user-friendly may be because the product research and development team initially treated BRC20 as a new thing similar to NFT with strong cyclical characteristics, and it is not clear whether there will be heat in the future, so the resources invested are not enough. We will pay more attention in the future."
Binance's Web3 wallet currently supports 37 public chains, including most Layer1 and Layer2 chains. In contrast, OKX supports 61 chains, and it is worth noting that OKX supports the Bitcoin network. Compared to Binance being labeled as "winning by eating all the buns," OKX's rich on-chain functions and support for the Bitcoin network appear to be more clever.
Perhaps, Binance's development strategy should shift from industry consolidation to innovation and research and development. Although the recent listings of ORDI and Sats have shown good momentum, most of it can be attributed to market factors and accumulated "big factory dividends." How to occupy a place in the Bitcoin ecosystem is the current focus of Binance's innovation in new things like BRC20. Nowadays, whether it is the "trend of the times" in the Bitcoin ecosystem or a "flash in the pan," there is enormous potential in the industry's blue ocean, and CEX is the helmsman. For the so-called "closed-door development," Binance needs more industry reflection and new development strategies.
Bitget
Compared to the previous two exchanges, as a rising star in the CEX field, Bitget's performance in the inscription field is also unconventional. As a second choice, Bitget has chosen to take a different path, focusing the inscription market on small-cap BRC20 tokens and inscription tokens on chains outside the Bitcoin ecosystem. It has successively listed Solana chain inscription tokens SOLS, Zero, BRC20 tokens MICE, BRC20.COM, MMSS, and Comsats, reflecting Bitget's market strategy in the inscription market and demonstrating the potential brought by multi-chain inscription tokens.
In the future, we can imagine that inscription tokens can be issued on every public chain just like traditional cryptocurrencies and traded normally on CEX. Bitget's involvement in multi-chain inscription tokens also proves this possibility. Perhaps, more and more projects will start using inscription to issue tokens, and Bitget is highly likely to become the preferred trading platform and experimental ground for these niche tokens.
As the development of inscription tokens becomes more widely recognized and applied in the industry, Bitget's involvement in inscription tokens will be a big move, releasing its influence and voice in the inscription field and enhancing its brand influence as a cryptocurrency exchange.
Inscription Market May Create a New Pattern for CEX
Drawing lessons from history, looking at the development of the entire cryptocurrency market, there will be enormous opportunities in the new wave of the Bitcoin ecosystem, just like the early beneficiaries of the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. This also applies to exchanges. According to data, BTC still accounts for over 50% of the total cryptocurrency market value and has the strongest consensus. The emergence of the inscription concept has filled the gap in the Bitcoin ecosystem's inability to support smart contracts, putting the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems on an equal footing once again. This is the best opportunity for the Bitcoin ecosystem to return to its peak. Therefore, both the inscription track and the Bitcoin ecosystem have enormous development potential and prospects.
In the face of the rapidly changing cryptocurrency industry, perhaps whoever can pioneer a complete set of inscription CEX exchange strategies, grasp the discourse power of the Bitcoin ecosystem, may become the helmsman of the next bull market outbreak. Currently, OKX leads the industry in inscription involvement, Bitget has chosen a different path, and He Yi's recent statement implies Binance's strategic adjustment and increased determination to invest in BRC20. The "inscription war" among CEX is about to begin, and we will wait and see who will become the leader of the future Bitcoin ecosystem.
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