Beyond ERC-20: Top 11 BRC-20 Tokens Worth Watching

The world’s first blockchain network, Bitcoin (BTC), was created with the goal of providing secure and anonymous digital asset storage and transfers. At the time of Bitcoin’s launch in January 2009, there was never an assumption that the network would need to handle anything more sophisticated. The arrival of Ethereum (ETH) and other smart contract chains a few years later drastically changed the expectations of what blockchains should be capable of. Concepts like decentralized apps (DApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) emerged as new use cases for blockchain technology.

Unfortunately for Bitcoin, its core functionality was poorly suited to handle such innovations. Within the NFT domain specifically, Ethereum, Solana (SOL) and other big smart chains quickly became home to thousands of NFTs and managed to establish thriving NFT trade mechanisms. Until early 2023, Bitcoin was left out of these developments, shunned by developers and creators alike under the assumption that no NFT functionality was possible on the network. 

That all changed with the arrival of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, which allows Bitcoin users to create native NFTs on the Bitcoin chain. Soon afterward, inspired by the Ordinals protocol, the BRC-20 experimental token standard was also introduced, designed to enable semi-fungible tokens on the blockchain.

BRC-20 tokens are now taking the market by storm, featuring some of the highest growth rates in the industry. In this review, we take a look at 11 popular BRC-20 tokens — the true movers and shakers in this niche. The market caps and trading prices we’ve indicated for each token are as of Jan 3, 2024.

Key Takeaways:

• BRC-20 is an experimental token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain. It defines standards for fungible cryptocurrencies that can be uniquely linked to individual satoshis – the smallest units in a Bitcoin.

• The BRC-20 token standard was inspired by the innovative Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. While the former is designed for fungible crypto tokens, the latter is focused on Bitcoin-based NFTs.

• Most BRC-20 tokens are meme coins, but a small number have important future use cases defined for them.

Top BRC-20 Tokens to Watch

ORDI

Market cap: $1.77 billion

Current price: $84.56

ORDI is the largest BRC-20 token by market capitalization, a true leader in this emerging category. This is of little surprise given that ORDI was the first BRC-20 token to arrive on the scene, and was designed to showcase the classic functionality offered by the standard. To understand ORDI and other tokens in our coverage, it’s important to first mention the innovation that started it all — the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol.

Every BTC coin on the Bitcoin blockchain is made up of 100 million satoshis, the smallest units a coin on the network can consist of. In January 2023, California-based programmer Casey Rodarmor introduced the Ordinals protocol, which can be used to inscribe bits of text, image, audio or video into each satoshi. In essence, the protocol makes it possible to distinctively identify each satoshi and associate it with the (typically unique) content inscribed into it. The Ordinals protocol is a curious way of enabling NFT functionality on Bitcoin without any need for smart contracts: users can now attach media to a satoshi and use the “token” as a unique, non-fungible asset.

Inspired by the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, a pseudonymous programmer known as Domo introduced the BRC-20 experimental token standard in March 2023. Unlike the Ordinals protocol, which focuses on NFT use cases, BRC-20 specifies the standard for creating fungible tokens that can be attributed to individual satoshis.

The ORDI token was launched soon after the creation of the BRC-20 standard. It’s a fungible token with a total supply of 21 million. Similar to other BRC-20 tokens, ORDI tokens can be attributed to individual satoshis on the Bitcoin network. Each ORDI is attributed to its respective satoshi using a JSON format file that specifies the token’s properties. You might think that this could make each ORDI a unique NFT. While this is possible, ORDI and other BRC-20 tokens can also be indistinguishable from each other — a foundational property for a fungible crypto asset. Due to this interesting combination of fungibility and uniqueness, ORDI and other BRC-20 tokens are often referred to as semi-fungible.

ORDI is a meme coin with limited to no practical use cases. That’s not to say that ORDI is a worthless crypto — the rise of Dogecoin (DOGE) has taught many crypto investors to appreciate the long-term ROI potential of at least some meme coins. In fact, between the time ORDI was launched in early May 2023 and Jan 2, 2024, the token has appreciated by over 330% — a rate of growth few cryptocurrencies have matched.

Buy ORDI as a Spot pair (ORDI/USDT) on Bybit now

Buy ORDI as a Perpetual contract on Bybit now

SATS (Ordinals)

Market cap: $1.64 billion

Current price: $0.00000078

SATS (Ordinals) is another big BRC-20 token and the main rival of ORDI in the market cap rankings. It was launched in early June 2023, about three months after ORDI, but has nearly matched it by market cap as of Jan 2, 2024.

Similar to ORDI, SATS is a meme coin with no defined utility on the blockchain. The token’s name, SATS, derives from the term satoshi — the smallest unit of a BTC coin.

1000SATS (Ordinals)

Market cap: $1.8 billion

Current price: $0.00078

Technically speaking, 1000SATS is the same cryptocurrency as the SATS (Ordinals) token above but is represented and traded in 1,000x larger denominations. In other words, one 1000SATS token is equal to 1,000 SATS tokens.

Many users find 1000SATS tokens easier to trade and keep track of compared to SATS, thanks to fewer decimal points in the token’s price. Perhaps largely due to this factor, 1000SATS typically features higher trading volumes than SATS.

RATS (Ordinals)

Market cap: $312.27 million

Current price: $0.00033

RATS (Ordinals) is a BRC-20 meme coin inspired by the humble rat, one of the most recognized rodents in the animal world. Needless to say, this token also has few applications beyond memes, fun and giggles.

RATS is among the late arrivals on the BRC-20 scene, having launched in November 2023. Despite that, it’s currently one of the most actively traded BRC-20 assets.

TRAC (Ordinals)

Market cap: $110.53 million

Current price: $5.26

TRAC (Ordinals) is a BRC-20 token issued by the Trac network, a platform that provides tools for tracking Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens. Ever since the arrival of the Ordinals protocol, many developers have used it to mint NFTs directly on Bitcoin. BRC-20 tokens have also grown enormously over the last few months. This has quickly led to the proliferation of Ordinals and BRC-20 cryptos on the network.

However, reliable information isn’t always available for the projects and tokens using the Ordinals protocol or BRC-20 standard. The Trac network aims to address this problem by scanning the Bitcoin blockchain and fetching data that allows you to monitor developments in the Ordinals and BRC-20 worlds.

At the moment, Trac is still in development and a public version has yet to be released. Interestingly, the TRAC token issued by the project is quite distinct from many other BRC-20 tokens, as it features a critical functionality: it will be used as the Trac platform’s governance crypto when the project’s public version is up and running.

Comsats (CSAS)

Market cap: $29.84 million

Current price: $0.03

CSAS is a BRC-20 token issued by the Comsats project, an initiative aimed at developing and supporting token standards for the Bitcoin blockchain. In addition to BRC-20, the team at Comsats also supports the development and popularization of ORC-20, a token standard that extends BRC-20 and aims to offer more flexibility and security.

The CSAS token is another example of a BRC-20 token with useful (planned) functionality. CSAS holders will be able to participate in revenue-sharing programs on the Comsats platform in the future, as stated on the project’s website.

DOMO

Market cap: $29.88 million

Current price: $1.42

DOMO is a token believed to be issued by none other than Domo — the pseudonymous creator of the BRC-20 standard. At this stage, the developer has provided little info on the actual utility of the token. The project likely deals with enabling additional token inscription options — an area of particular interest for Domo — but further specifics on the token are yet to be released.

PIZA (Ordinals)

Market cap: $7.24 million

Current price: $0.34

The PIZA (Ordinals) token has been inspired by a humorous pizza-related incident from Bitcoin folklore. In the early years of Bitcoin, when the cryptocurrency was barely recognized by the wider public, a BTC holder, Laszlo Hanyecz, ordered two pizzas from a local Papa John’s. Since the pizza shop didn’t accept crypto for payment, Laszlo jumped on a Bitcoin discussion forum, offering 10,000 BTC (around $457 million in today’s prices) to anyone who’d deliver the pizzas to him. A taker for the offer was quickly found.

The PIZA token is also one of the many meme coins in the BRC-20 space, and the website of the token’s issuer clearly states that PIZA was created as a fun token only, bearing no intrinsic value or utility.

VMPX

Market cap: $7.27 million

Current price: $0.059

VMPX is another BRC-20 token with important utility. The VMPX project aims to establish close connectivity between Bitcoin and Ethereum in the future. VMPX’s role will be to serve as a liquidity token on the cross-chain bridge. Besides the BRC-20 version on Bitcoin, VMPX also exists as an ERC-20 version on the Ethereum chain.

NALS

Market cap: $6.6 million

Current price: $0.32

This is another meme coin in the family of BRC-20 tokens, also with no clearly stated functionality beyond bringing a dose of optimism and laughter to your day. Its issuer’s X profile states that the token is a tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysteriously absent creator of the Bitcoin blockchain.

PEPE (Ordinals)

Market cap: $6.83 million

Current price: $0.16

The PEPE (Ordinals) token is probably the “memest” of all meme coins in our review. It was originally launched on Ethereum in April 2023. Inspired by cartoonist Matt Furie’s Pepe the Frog meme from the early 2000s, Pepe (PEPE) was massively promoted on social media around mid- and late-2023, drawing both enthusiasm and allegations of being a pump-and-dump scheme.

Soon after the Ethereum launch, in mid-May 2023, the token’s BRC-20 version — PEPEBRC — was introduced on Bitcoin. Drawing on the popularity of Pepe the Frog and the token’s Ethereum version, PEPE (Ordinals) is among the most-recognized BRC-20 cryptos. Just like its Ethereum version, PEPEBRC has no utility beyond being a lot of fun and a source of meme humor.

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding BRC-20 Tokens

What Is a BRC-20 Token?

BRC-20 is an experimental token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain. It draws on the ability of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol to inscribe media, e.g., text, images, audios or videos, into individual satoshis, the smallest elements of each BTC coin. BRC-20 tokens are defined as fungible cryptocurrencies, although the ability to inscribe custom media into each satoshi linked to a token potentially violates the fungibility concept. For this reason, many crypto sources refer to BRC-20 tokens as semi-fungible assets.

What's the Difference Between BRC-20 and ERC-20?

Bitcoin’s BRC-20 and Ethereum’s ERC-20 have virtually no meaningful similarities beyond the fact that both are token standards for creating fungible cryptocurrencies. For starters, BRC-20 makes no use of smart contracts — Bitcoin in general lacks such functionality — whereas ERC-20 tokens are actively used within Ethereum’s smart contracts.

Additionally, as noted above, BRC-20 tokens have features that violate the principle of strict fungibility, with many analysts defining them as semi-fungible. In contrast, ERC-20 tokens fully conform to the principle of fungibility. Anything potentially non-fungible on the Ethereum network is typically handled by the blockchain’s primary NFT standard, ERC-721.

Finally, most BRC-20 tokens are meme coins with limited to no intrinsic value or applied utility. ERC-20 tokens, on the other hand, power the functionality of Ethereum DApps across a variety of domains — decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, gambling, DeSo (decentralized social) and many more. Having said that, it’s important to note that a small number of BRC-20 tokens are indeed intended to be used in the future for specific functions, such as governance, revenue-sharing or cross-chain liquidity.

Where Can I Buy BRC-20 Tokens?

You can buy BRC-20 tokens on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. On Bybit, you can easily trade the niche leader, ORDI, as a Spot pair or Perpetual contract. If you don’t have a Bybit account, you can easily register for one and trade hundreds of cryptocurrencies in both the Spot and Derivatives markets.

Closing Thoughts

Despite their relatively modest market caps, BRC-20 tokens are making a real splash in the market, posting growth rates very few other niches can match. The major criticism leveled at these tokens is that they lack proper utility or intrinsic value. While the majority of these cryptos are indeed meme coins, purely for fun and laughter, there are some — such as VMPX, CSAS and TRAC — that have future important use cases.

At the moment, the lack of smart contract functionality on Bitcoin limits the practical usability of BRC-20 tokens. However, a variety of Layer 2 solutions aiming to address this critical problem are being introduced on a monthly basis. If these solutions can inject proper smart contract functionality into Bitcoin’s platform, BRC-20 tokens might receive another boost — and this time around, they’ll be supported by real applications, not just memes and jokes.

#Bybit #TheCryptoArk