By Michael Scott
The news of optimism in approving spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) across the crypto circles dominated the week as Bitcoin rallied to break above the $37000 level for the first time in 18 months. The optimism spread as Ethereum pumped above $2100 following news that Larry Fink-led BlackRock applied for ETH ETF.
Widespread Optimism of ETF Fuels Price Uptick in EtherRock and Bitcoin Rock Ordinals
The optimism manifested in the Ethereum and Bitcoin rally was also witnessed in EtherRock NFTs and Bitcoin Rock Ordinals. The latter JPEG exchanged hands for six-figure sums, triggering hopes of a looming bull run.
The price uptick within the crypto community portrays an emergent hope. Individuals who could protest the emergence of an actual bull market without the emergence of obscenely expensive JPEGs exchanging hands are pointless. Surprisingly, there are emergent reasons for JPEG holders to rejoice in the current crypto rally.
A review of Friday’s market performance of on-chain images of illustrated rocks realized the sudden rally. The rock JPEG hosted on Ethereum, similar to a nonfungible token, matched the six-figure price as the rock inscribed on Bitcoin as ordinal. Both commanded six-figure sales on the secondary markets.
EtherRock #95 from the EtherRocks nonfungible token (NFT) collection exchanged hands for 100 ETH, translating to $209000. Ordinal, linked to the visually similar BitcoinRock collection, was priced at 2.99 BTC a few hours earlier, translating to $111000 at press time.
The Rock JPEGs lack affiliated memberships and perks, labeled as coming with nothing of visible value. They involve lightly illustrated images featuring indistinguishable gray boulders that lack feature backgrounds.
Revisiting EtherRocks and Bitcoin Rocks Journey Towards Looming NFT Bull Run
EtherRocks unveiled in 2017 attracted little fanfare, only to realize the NFT bull run heights in late 2021. The 100-piece collection gained bullish steam that would essentially poke fun at this week’s six-figure price. Individual EtherRocks in 2021 regularly sold the piece for six figures, with one selling for $1.3 million.
One buyer of EtherRocks labeled the monetary value derived from the art as merely an illusion. He added that the pet rocks collection only manifests the perfect shock value and stupid yet ironic fate.
Bitcoin Rocks was unveiled in January as unlinked Ordinals users inscribed 100-set images similar to the EtherRocks. The user utilized small denominations of Bitcoin to create the Rocks collection. Although the Ordinals collection has yet to replicate Ethereum predecessors, it yielded five-figure secondary market sales in recent months.
A review of the recent market trends appears to hit differently, given that Friday’s sales eclipsed $100k. The price spike caught multiple Twitter users labeling the news as the precursor.
The Twitter community considered the six-figure sales marks the return of absurdity and obscenity witnessed in 2021. Many users termed Friday’s event as portraying flagrant financial foolishness that characterized the 2021 crypto bull run.
The members of the digital assets community portrayed division in whether the pet rock JPEG price movement was good or bad.
While the price of the pet rock JPEGs illustrates the likely return of bull market antics, the digital assets activity is miles away from the levels experienced during the previous ascendance of EtherRocks.
While Bitcoin Ordinals trading realized the six-month high figures earlier in the week, it marked the best numbers realized by NFT trading volume since August 2023. Nonetheless, the numbers are mild relative to the trading volume accomplished during the 2021-22 NFT bull run.
A review of the previous week’s figures is encouraging from the 93% plunge in NFT trading volume since the sector realized its peak in April last year. Most of the Twitter community is optimistic that the pricey digital rock purchases illustrate the desire to replicate the frenzied excitement that characterized the bull run in the 2021-22 NFT bull era.