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Franklin Templeton Sees ‘Renaissance’ in Bitcoin Activity, Credits Ordinals for Innovation Surge
- Franklin Templeton turned its attention to Bitcoin Ordinals in its latest publication from the Digital Assets Division.
- The financial giants have long been allies of the crypto industry, with the team filing for a spot Ether ETF later this year.
- The report highlights the significant increase in trading volume – in particular of Ordinals and new BTC-based token standards – to kick off 2024.
The NFT craze has fallen a long way from its peak in 2021. But rumours of its demise were somewhat exaggerated – if financial heavyweights Franklin Templeton are to be believed. Ethereum was the blockchain of choice for the first few years of non-fungible token trading, and to this day still comprises the majority of popular NFT collectibles. Yet, there are signs of life coming from all across the cryptosphere, and some places less likely than others. Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin has emerged as a key driver of the NFT market – and it’s all thanks to Ordinals.
Related: Goldman Sachs Executive Asserts Crypto Lacks Value, Denies Its Status as an Investment Asset Class
Trading Volume of Ordinals Behind Bitcoin’s Increased Activity
Franklin Templeton highlighted the rise of Bitcoin Ordinals in the release of its latest prospectus. The Digital Asset division of the company found that over the past month investors had sprung into action, with trading volumes of Bitcoin Ordinals surpassing USD $250m (AUD $380M). This followed a trend identified in December 2023, when Bitcoin flipped Ethereum to become the network with the largest trading volume.
The prospectus author mentioned Franklin Templeton’s interest in Ordinals – in particular the new project Runestone – as the cornerstone of the new publication.
In the past year, Bitcoin innovation and development has seen a renaissance in activity…positive momentum in innovations is primarily driven through bitcoin NFTs, known as Ordinals, new fungible token starts such as BRC-20 and Runes, Bitcoin Layer 2s, and other Bitcoin DeFi primities.
Franklin Templeton Simply put, the Bitcoin network has transformed from a barren place into a fully-fledged ecosystem in a matter of months, and it owes this metamorphosis to Ordinals.
Ordinals came about in late 2022 after being developed by Casey Rodarmor. Essentially, he identified a way to create unique numbers for each “sat” (the smallest amount of a Bitcoin you can possibly have), which paved the way for inscribing data onto the blockchain. Lo and behold – you can now send memes on Bitcoin.
Author
Ben Knight
Ben Knight is a writer and editor from Melbourne with a passion for all things music and finance. He enjoys turning complex topics – especially the technical details of cryptocurrency – into digestible bites that anybody can understand. He acquired his Master’s in Writing, Editing and Publishing from RMIT in 2019 and has run his own creative writing business ever since.
