Cryptocurrencies
Memecoin Mania and NFTs Bring a ‘Seismic Shift’ for Bitcoin Mining
- Transaction fees make up an increasing share of miner revenue
- Industry is assessing whether the change is structural
Signage for NFT during a Blockchain Festival in Hong Kong.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An eruption of memecoins and nonfungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain has reshaped the revenue profile of miners and stirred questions about how lasting the upheaval will prove to be.
New software known as Ordinals paved the way for the NFTs and meme tokens to come to the network this year. Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. says the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem could be worth $4.5 billion by 2025, while about 25,000 memecoins have been tallied on the blockchain since they first emerged in March.