The Wealth Myth of Ordinals: Some Achieve Small Goals, While Others Miss the Wealth Train

With Bitcoin Core developer LUKE's criticism of the entire inscription market on Twitter, a heated discussion and controversy erupted within the crypto community. BRC-20 tokens represented by ORDI are at the center of this storm, with supporters claiming it injects new vitality into the Bitcoin ecosystem, while opponents argue that it exploits vulnerabilities in the Bitcoin client to flood the Bitcoin blockchain network with junk information.

Regardless of the final outcome, the birth and hype of Ordinals undoubtedly provided a strong boost to the crypto market, which is currently in a bear market, leading to unprecedented trading activity and investment confidence. Many people capitalized on this wave, realizing their wealth dreams, while others missed this financial opportunity. Today, we invite an early participant of Ordinals, Long (a pseudonym), who fully engaged in this wealth feast of Ordinals, to share his wealth story with Ordinals.

Question 1: How did you come across and learn about Ordinals?

Long: As a Bitcoiner, I have always been interested in Bitcoin's technology and development. In December 2022, Casey Rodarmor introduced the Ordinals theory on Twitter, and this innovative technology attracted widespread attention. Ordinals allows some information or inscriptions to be directly engraved on each satoshi, with each inscription tracked and transferred through ordinal theory, giving each satoshi a unique ID (making it non-fungible). This essentially introduced a protocol for minting NFT assets to the Bitcoin network. I remember that at that time, Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC, also released an NFT series based on the Ordinals protocol called TwelveFold, which included 300 limited edition generative art pieces, with the highest auction price reaching 7 BTC.

Of course, the BTC community did not stop exploring inscriptions. Since it was possible to issue NFTs on the Bitcoin network through the Ordinals protocol, could tokens also be minted using the Ordinals protocol? On March 8, 2023, a Twitter user named DOMO proposed using JSON data format Ordinals inscriptions to achieve token contract deployment, minting, and transfers. The experimental Bitcoin fungible token protocol BRC-20 was born, and the first BRC-20 token, $ORDI, was issued with a total supply of 21 million, allowing everyone to mint for free (only requiring transaction fees), on a first-come, first-served basis.

I remember that at that time, the popularity of ORDI and other BRC-20 tokens was not high, as the Bitcoin community viewed it as old wine in a new bottle. However, I decided to give it a try and minted 1,000 ORDI. The cost was just the Bitcoin network's transaction fee, around $3, which made the price of each token approximately $0.003, almost negligible. So my thought at that time was that even if BRC-20 failed, it would be okay, as I contributed to the Bitcoin network.

Question 2: When did BRC-20 tokens attract market attention?

Long: The first wave of interest should be in May this year. As multiple BRC-20 tokens on Unisat saw trading volumes and prices continuously reaching new highs, several centralized exchanges began to enter the BRC-20 market, with OKX and Bitget being among the early entrants. On May 10, Bitget listed ORDI, and on the first day of trading, ORDI's price peaked at over $37, before dropping significantly and stabilizing around $20. It was also at this time that I began to reduce my holdings of ORDI. Although I didn't sell at the peak, compared to the initial minting fees, I had achieved nearly a thousand times return.

Question 3: ORDI experienced a period of correction; how did you navigate through it? Why did you choose to buy the dip at this time?

Long: After the first wave of excitement for ORDI, there was a significant correction shortly after it was listed on exchanges. According to data from Bitget, ORDI dropped from $20 at launch to a low of $2.84 in September, a decline of over 85%.

Many investors were scared off by this major correction, believing that the hype around Bitcoin inscriptions had ended, so they chose to liquidate their positions. However, I did not share this view. Although the prices of BRC-20 related tokens experienced a significant correction, the infrastructure of the Bitcoin ecosystem was continuously improving. While the secondary market prices were disappointing, more and more people were joining the ranks of minting inscriptions, and on-chain transactions and activity on Bitcoin, as well as transaction fees, were at historical highs. Additionally, Bitcoin's price was gradually pushing towards new yearly highs, so I judged that BRC-20 had greater potential for an explosion. Therefore, during the ORDI correction, I kept buying on the Bitget platform, averaging down my position, and ultimately bought ORDI at a cost of around $4-5, holding it until the second explosion of the BRC-20 ecosystem in November.

I am very glad that I made the right choice this time. The leading ORDI kept breaking new highs, and I also boarded this wealth growth train. In fact, even if I had been wrong, it wouldn't have mattered much, as the cost was low, and I wasn't afraid of making mistakes.

Question 4: How much profit has ORDI brought you? In the face of pressure from developers like LUKE, how do you view the future of Ordinals? What advice do you have for newcomers?

Long: From the initial minting of ORDI tokens to its listing on centralized platforms like Bitget and experiencing a correction, I began to buy the dip and hold. Currently, my personal profit has exceeded 10,000 times, bringing me one step closer to my dream of exiting the market early. However, many people did not enjoy such high returns. As ORDI gained popularity, many early participants did not hold on; I know several friends who chose to liquidate at a few times or around 10 times their investment, thus missing this opportunity for wealth.

Although Bitcoin Core developers do not welcome BRC-20 tokens like ORDI, I still have confidence in their future development. As a decentralized network, developers cannot decide everything; moreover, we have indeed seen that tokens like ORDI have brought tremendous traffic to the BTC network, injecting new vitality into this bear market.

For newcomers, I do not recommend minting inscriptions on-chain right now. On one hand, the operation is complex and prone to errors, and on the other hand, the first-mover advantage of current inscription tokens is already very obvious. Choosing to mint tokens that lack attention and traffic is just wasting transaction fees. Newcomers can focus on the secondary market and buy during price corrections through centralized platforms like Bitget and OKX, which were early entrants into the BRC-20 space, as centralized platforms can provide better liquidity and simpler operations. Taking ORDI as an example, it was listed on Bitget in May, and there was a full six-month adjustment period before its explosion; buying before November would have yielded very considerable returns.

Summary

Success is not accidental; it requires us to have keen insight, firm belief, and decisive decision-making. At the same time, we must also learn to let go at the right time and enjoy the beauty of life. Because true success is not just the accumulation of wealth, but also the richness and growth of life.