Busy bitcoin births new breed of crypto

Things are heating up on the bitcoin blockchain.

Daily transactions have rocketed to an all-time high of 682,000 this month, according to data from Glassnode, almost 40% higher than the previous peak in 2017. Bitcoin’s dominance, or its share of the overall $1.16 trillion cryptocurrency market, has swelled to 44% from 38% at the start of the year.

What’s going on?

Enter BRC-20, the first class of crypto tokens to be built on the bitcoin blockchain, besides bitcoin itself. Nearly 25,000 of the experimental coins have already been minted this year, sending transactions through the roof.