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Wintermute’s OTC desk discussed the huge potential in the Bitcoin ecosystem’s idle capital. As Bitcoin prepares for the halving event, investors are eyeing potential gains in related networks and ecosystem tokens such as STX, RUNE and ORDI.
Halving, which reduces the rate of new coin creation, has historically triggered a bull market for Bitcoin. This expectation is driving investors to look for opportunities within the Bitcoin ecosystem, as the narrative around the coin is constantly evolving in the current bullish climate.
Wintermute’s OTC desk highlighted the underutilized capital in the Bitcoin ecosystem and the limited options for investors to participate in this narrative. They suggested that tokens like $RUNE, $STX and $ORDI could witness significant growth if capital were to flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Tokens such as THORChain’s RUNE and Stack’s STX have performed impressively over the past year, closely mirroring Bitcoin’s trajectory. In particular, ORDI, the meme coin linked to the Ordinals protocol in Bitcoin, has surged over 2,500% since its inception in September.
Bartosz Lipinski, founder of Cube.Exchange, predicts that meme coins and upcoming protocols like Runes could stimulate speculative activity in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Lipinski expects a shift away from Ethereum due to its high costs and network congestion, and Bitcoin-based projects like Rune to capitalize on the novelty factor.
Runes, which will launch on halving day, aims to offer fungible tokens to compete with projects on Base and Solana by facilitating the efficient creation of meme coins. Lipinski suggests that Runes could mark a potential paradigm shift in the ecosystem by surpassing the BRC-20 (Ordinals NFT) standard.
Ordinals, a method of embedding data on the Bitcoin blockchain through digital art references in small transactions, has witnessed higher volumes compared to leaders like Ethereum and Solana. NodeMonkes and Pups, in particular, led the surge, showing a marked interest in Ordinals amid a decline in NFT activity on other networks.
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