Bitcoin NFT collection Space Pepes see big surge in activity

Not to be outdone by Bitcoin Frogs, which earlier this week outpaced top-shelf NFT brand Bored Ape Yacht Club in trading, a collection dubbed Space Pepes has become king of the proverbial hill — for now, at least.

Space Pepes, a batch of thousands of unique Bitcoin-based digital collectibles, is ranking as the top-selling NFT collection during the past 24 hours with about $7.3 million in trading, according to CryptoSlam! data. That’s better than both the Ethereum-based Bored Apes and Bitcoin Frogs, which appear to have lost some momentum in the last couple of days.

Over the past seven days, Space Pepes has also ranked third with nearly all of its $7.3 million in trading generated during the past 24 hours, while Bitcoin Frogs holds seventh place with $5.4 million in volume.

CryptoSlam! NFT collection rankings for the past seven days.

The fact that Bitcoin-based NFTs are even in the discussion when examining trading volume for digital assets could potentially mark the beginning of a new era. Historically, top-selling NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Apes, Doodles and Azuki were minted on Ethereum, by far the dominant chain for such tokens.

Yet bitcoin going toe-to-toe with Ethereum in the NFT arena via frog memes doesn’t come as a surprise to some crypto veterans.

“For years people have said Bitcoin will absorb many of the popular applications from other blockchains,” said The Block Research Analyst Steven Zheng. “The accidental creation of Bitcoin NFTs via Ordinals brought those beliefs into fruition. Being an extremely secure and highly liquid blockchain makes Bitcoin an attractive blockchain to launch NFTs for creators.”

Indeed, the Bitcoin NFT market is on the upswing.

Digital assets minted on the chain have registered about $294 million in sales, though that figure remains dwarfed by Ethereum’s all-time sales volume of nearly $44 billion, according to CryptoSlam! data.

But Bitcoin-based NFTs have done most of their business only in the last month, generating $156 million in sales during the past 30 days, making it the second most popular chain for digital assets. Ethereum is top over the past month with about $420 million in total sales.

CryptoSlam! rankings for NFTs by blockchain.

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