BTC: Ordinals & Inscriptions

Inscriptions and runes on Bitcoin, decoded from every block by our own node: how many inscriptions are made and of which content type, the fees they pay and the block space they use, and how often transactions carry ordinal or runestone markers.

Ordinals and Inscriptions

Inscriptions put data, from images to text, into the witness of a Bitcoin transaction; runes are tokens written into an output’s script. Both compete with ordinary payments for block space and pay fees for it.

We decode every inscription envelope and runestone our node sees, so these counts are exact for what parses; the content-type groups come from each inscription’s own declared type.

Waves of inscriptions have driven fee spikes before: compare their fees and bytes with the fee charts to see how much of the block space they take.

BTC: Parsed Inscription Carrier Transactions by MIME Group

The number of non-coinbase transactions carrying parsed inscription envelopes in each UTC hour or day, stacked by MIME group: Text, Image, Audio, Video, Other MIME type, Missing/invalid MIME and Mixed MIME groups. Follow how many transactions carry inscription envelopes and how they divide by declared MIME group. A taller band means more carrier transactions in that group. Groups are disjoint, so a carrier appears in one band only; transactions spanning groups use Mixed, and Text does not identify BRC-20. Each carrier counts once, however many envelopes it carries. Heights before 767,430 are inactive by definition, not zero observations, which does not claim there were no earlier markers, and missing active-era decoder facts are withheld.

BTC: Cumulative Parsed Inscription Carrier Transactions by MIME Group

Running totals of parsed inscription carrier transactions, stacked by MIME group: Text, Image, Audio, Video, Other MIME type, Missing/invalid MIME and Mixed MIME groups. Follow how many inscription carrier transactions have accumulated since decoding began, and how they divide by declared MIME group. Each band adds its group's daily carrier count to its previous total, so bands only grow or stay flat. Groups are disjoint, so a carrier appears in one band only; transactions spanning groups use Mixed, and Text does not identify BRC-20. Each carrier counts once, however many envelopes it carries. The earlier prefix before height 767,430 is proved inactive rather than sampled zero history, and active-era missing facts are unknown. Daily only.

BTC: Parsed Inscription Carrier Fees by MIME Group

The total fees, in BTC, paid by parsed inscription carrier transactions in each UTC hour or day, stacked by MIME group: Text, Image, Audio, Video, Other MIME type, Missing/invalid MIME and Mixed MIME groups. Measure the fees paid by inscription carriers and how they divide by declared MIME group. A taller band means that group's carriers paid more fees in the period. Groups are disjoint, so a carrier appears in one band only; transactions spanning groups use Mixed, and Text does not identify BRC-20. Each carrier contributes its entire fee once, however many envelopes it carries. Heights before 767,430 are inactive by definition, not zero observations, and missing active-era decoder facts are withheld.

BTC: Parsed Inscription Carrier Serialized Bytes by MIME Group

The total serialized bytes of parsed inscription carrier transactions in each UTC hour or day, stacked by MIME group: Text, Image, Audio, Video, Other MIME type, Missing/invalid MIME and Mixed MIME groups. Measure the transaction data volume of inscription carriers and how it divides by declared MIME group. A taller band means that group's carriers took up more serialized bytes in the period. Groups are disjoint, so a carrier appears in one band only; transactions spanning groups use Mixed, and Text does not identify BRC-20. Each carrier contributes its entire serialized size once, however many envelopes it carries, so this is whole-transaction size, not content size. Heights before 767,430 are inactive by definition, not zero observations, and missing active-era decoder facts are withheld.

BTC: Cumulative Parsed Inscription Carrier Serialized Bytes by MIME Group

Running totals of serialized bytes of parsed inscription carrier transactions, stacked by MIME group: Text, Image, Audio, Video, Other MIME type, Missing/invalid MIME and Mixed MIME groups. Follow how much transaction data inscription carriers have accumulated since decoding began, and how it divides by declared MIME group. Each band adds its group's daily carrier bytes to its previous total, so bands only grow or stay flat. Groups are disjoint, so a carrier appears in one band only; transactions spanning groups use Mixed, and Text does not identify BRC-20. Each carrier contributes its entire serialized size once, however many envelopes it carries. The earlier prefix before height 767,430 is proved inactive rather than sampled zero history, and active-era missing facts are unknown. Daily only.

BTC: Ordinal Marker Transaction Share

The percentage of non-coinbase transactions in each UTC hour or day that contain recognized ordinal markers. Put marker-bearing transactions in proportion to all non-coinbase transaction activity. Higher values mean a larger share of the period's non-coinbase transactions contained markers; a change in either count moves the ratio. Recognition is syntactic and does not establish inscription validity.

BTC: Transactions with Ordinal Envelope Markers

Transactions in each UTC hour or day containing a closed ord envelope marker, recognized by syntax, in a Taproot script-path witness. Count marker-bearing transactions rather than individual markers. Each transaction counts once, however many markers it contains. Markers are recognized only in Taproot script-path witnesses after activation. This is not a count of valid inscriptions or of inscription transfers.

BTC: Transactions with Runestone Markers

Transactions with an OP_RETURN/OP_13 output after height 840,000 in each UTC hour or day. Count transactions that carry a Runestone marker, without interpreting Rune activity. Higher values mean more marker-bearing transactions in the period. Malformed marker-bearing messages are included, and no valid Rune etching, mint, transfer or balance is inferred.

BTC: Runestone Marker Transaction Share

The percentage of non-coinbase transactions in each UTC hour or day that contain Runestone markers. Put Runestone-marked transactions in proportion to all non-coinbase transaction activity. Higher values mean a larger share of the period's non-coinbase transactions contained markers; a change in either count moves the ratio. Malformed messages are included, so this does not measure valid Rune activity.

BTC: Parsed Inscription Envelopes

The number of inscription envelopes parsed by the ord 0.29.0 decoder from transactions in each UTC hour or day. Count inscription envelope activity directly, separately from carrier transactions, fees and bytes. Higher values mean more parsed envelopes. One transaction can carry several envelopes, so this count can exceed the number of carrier transactions. Parsing is transaction-local: no inscription number, sat ownership, transfer ledger, token mint success or BRC-20 validity is inferred, and no content is retained or decompressed. Coinbase is excluded, and missing active-era decoder facts are withheld.