Bitcoin surpasses $24,000 as ordinals take the network by storm

Even as US regulators ramp up their crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges and their staking programs, Bitcoin’s price surged to nearly $24,300 on Wednesday, its highest since August 2022, falling 8,000 in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko. 2% to.

The pump, which is nearly breaking an eight-month record, comes as users and major brands flock to the OG blockchain to inscribe content onto the network using ordinals inscriptions.

The number of ordinal enrollments surpassed 100,000 late Tuesday night, and unlike bitcoin sidechains like Stacks or Counterparty, ordinals are enrolled directly into the blockchain. Enrollments were made possible by the SegWit and Taproot upgrades to the Bitcoin network as they are stored in the transaction witness of a Bitcoin block.

Among the projects moving to ordinals is the popular Solana NFT collection DeGods, which brought 535 DeGods NFTs to the Bitcoin blockchain. On Wednesday, Xverse, a bitcoin-based web wallet, added support for ordinal numbers.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Keanu Reeves likes crypto.

But while Ordinals is having its moment in the sun, some are pointing to the SEC’s recent moves against stablecoins and staking, speculating that investors are converting their altcoins into bitcoin, which SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has historically described as not a security.

Yes I did yesterday and switched most to BTC. With the SEC on a mission to destroy stables and regulations on the horizon, BTC should be the only sensible choice.

— OG Superposition (@cryptoMaxistNft) February 15, 2023

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined cryptocurrency exchange Kraken $30 million for failing to “properly” register its staking program.

On Monday, Coinbase, also a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, said it would defend its staking services against the SEC.

“Coinbase’s staking services are not securities,” tweeted Brian Armstrong, Coinbase co-founder and CEO, “We will happily defend this in court if necessary.”

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