Bitcoin Ordinals: Artist Inscribes Gensler’s Post Debunking Bitcoin ETF Approval on Blockchain

Gary Gensler’s response debunking the bogus Bitcoin ETF approval post has been inscribed into Bitcoin Ordinals by digital artist and coder @billyrestey.

Billy posted on X that the inscription would cement the memory of this infamous tweet on the Bitcoin blockchain. On Tuesday, a security breach of the SEC’s official Twitter account led to a false post about Bitcoin ETF approval.

About 15 minutes later, SEC Chair Gary Gensler debunked the tweet as false. Gensler’s tweet reportedly kicked off an internal investigation within X. The news also caused market turmoil, leading to investor losses. Therefore, in turn, the post by the SEC chair made it to the ‘Hall of Ordinals.’

The tweet, now an unalterable part of digital history, was inscribed on January 9, 2024, at 10:01 PM GMT. It is encapsulated in Bitcoin within creation block 825,059.

NFT inscribed in over $100

The NFT was created as a 24.32 KB WEBP image file. This digital creation cost 258,177 sats or $117 in creation fees, as revealed in the transaction.

That said, a DUNE dashboard revealed 54,055,669 inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, accumulating an all-time fee expenditure of $195.4 million.

This trend is noteworthy, as 2023 was dubbed “The Year of Ordinals” by Blockworks Research. Their report shows an expenditure of over $80 million on Bitcoin fees for the inscription of approximately 40 million ordinals throughout the year, all of which benefited Bitcoin miners.

Bitcoin Ordinals emerged in 2023 to inscribe unique pieces of data directly onto the smallest unit of Bitcoin, a satoshi. This revolutionized Bitcoin to join the NFT frenzy, like its smart counterpart.

While many embrace the innovation, it also gets criticism for potentially leading to network congestion.

Recently, Blockstream CEO Adam Back responded to Bitcoin core developer Luka Dashjr’s efforts to remove Bitcoin Ordinals. Back emphasized that Dashjr cannot prevent JPEGs from existing on Bitcoin. Earlier, Dashjr expressed his concerns about Bitcoin Ordinals, claiming they exploit a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core to overload the blockchain.