Leading NFTs saw a 100-fold monthly increase. Will the BRC 2.0 upgrade trigger a new round of BTC ecology?

Original / Odaily Planet Daily

Author / Golem

Recently, with the BRC 2.0 upgrade approaching and related assets triggering a wealth effect, some Degen investors in the market have once again turned their attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Over the past month, the transaction price of Adderrels, a leading NFT project in the BRC 2.0 series, has soared from 0.0001269 BTC (approximately $15) to 0.019 BTC (approximately $2,300), achieving a return on investment exceeding 100x.

What changes will the BRC 2.0 upgrade bring to the BRC 20 protocol? What are the current surrounding assets and how to play with them? In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will briefly introduce the BRC 2.0 upgrade and review the concept assets and how to play with them in the market.

BRC 2.0 Upgrade Overview

BRC 2.0 is not a new protocol, but an upgrade to the BRC 20 protocol launched by Best in Slot, a core co-maintainer of the BRC 20 protocol. In short, this upgrade aims to enable EVM-compatible smart contract functionality for all BRC 20 tokens, supporting advanced financial applications such as DeFi, stablecoins, DeFi Assets (DeFAI), DAOs, and Reliable Asset Warranties (RWAs).

The Best in Slot team began planning this upgrade in January 2025 and has already received widespread support from the BRC 20 ecosystem, including the Layer 1 Foundation led by BRC 20 protocol founder domo, Unisat, OKX Wallet, and others. In short, BRC 2.0 is not a "wild protocol" that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but rather a conspiracy by core builders to bring BRC 20 back into the public eye.

However, the BRC 2.0 upgrade's programmability approach is less impressive and can be categorized as an off-chain solution. As shown in the figure below, which shows the BRC 2.0 programmable module designed by Best in Slot, the EVM executor is integrated with the BRC 20 indexer, and final state updates are entirely performed on the Bitcoin chain by the BRC 20 indexer. In other words, the "EVM executor" does not run on the public chain, and users can only trust the correct contract interaction results updated on-chain by the BRC 20 indexer. Furthermore, Best in Slot announced that it will create a gas-free application chain for BTCFi to eliminate the 10-minute delay and fee barriers of the Bitcoin mainnet.

Therefore, some in the market believe that the BRC 2.0 upgrade's programmability approach is too decentralized and poses a single point of failure.

In addition to programmability, Best in Slot has launched "Ordinal Locker" to enhance interoperability between BRC 20 and Ordinals. This feature leverages Bitcoin's timelock mechanism to allow users to lock Ordinals assets, unlocking BRC 20 gameplay options such as mining, staking, airdrops, and voting. The "Digital Locker" feature supports five lock-up time options: 1 hour, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. This feature is also responsible for the rapid surge in the floor price of Adderrels, the leading NFT concept in BRC 2.0.

BRC 2.0 will launch on the mainnet on August 14th

According to Best in Slot's official roadmap, the successful completion of the BRC 2.0 upgrade requires two phases:

Phase 1: Enabling 6-character BRC 20 tokens and launching the launchpad

Phase 1 will take place at block height 909969 (approximately August 14th). BRC 2.0 will enable 6-character BRC 20 tokens upon the Bitcoin mainnet launch (BRC 20 tokens currently only support 4-character and 5-character tokens). ), anyone will be able to deploy 6-character BRC 20 tokens. These new 6-character BRC 20 tokens will also immediately gain programmability.

In addition, Best in Slot will release a custom launchpad at mainnet launch for creating programmable virtual assets based on BRC 2.0.

Phase Two: Making All BRC 20 Tokens Programmable

Phase Two will take place at block 914888 (approximately September 17th). Upon completion, both 4- and 5-character BRC 20 tokens will be programmable.

BRC 2.0 Revives Pre-Runes Gameplay

Even though 6-character BRC 20 tokens are not yet available for issuance before the BRC 2.0 upgrade, various platforms will be developed before the official launch of the Runes protocol in 2024. Similar to the pre-run asset hype, the market has already begun to hype pre-BRC 2.0 concept assets. These NFT projects all claim to airdrop BRC 2.0 tokens in the future. However, there are also some "startup" projects. The following is an inventory of the more popular pre-BRC 2.0 assets recently. Investors are advised to discern for themselves.

Adderrels

LIQUID claims to be the first pre-BRC 2.0 token minted on Ordinals, with a total supply of 50,000 LiQUID tokens. Each NFT represents 1,000 LiQUID tokens, bringing the total supply to 50 million. LIQUID minting became free on July 25th, and the current floor price is 0.000078 BTC (approximately $8), with a market capitalization of only $400,000. According to the official description, players holding NFTs can receive token airdrops, without staking.

Early Birds

Early Birds claims to be the first BRC 2.0 NFT with staking functionality. A total of 5,000 NFTs are available, with each NFT corresponding to 1,000 birdie tokens. These will be airdropped after the BRC 2.0 upgrade is complete. The current floor price for Early Birds is 0.00063 BTC, and 1,877 NFTs have been staked, resulting in a staking rate of 37.5%. Staking NFTs will earn you more token rewards.

buttmullets

Buttmullets is an NFT project closely related to Adderrels. All Adderrels staking addresses are eligible for whitelisting and will receive future token airdrops. Due to its connection to Adderrels, minting began at midnight on July 28th, with a total supply of 3,333 at a price of 0.00012 BTC. These mints quickly sold out upon launch, and the current floor price is 0.00058 BTC (approximately $60).

Griftmo

Griftmo has a total supply of 3888 units, with a public sale price of 0.00008 BTC, and minting will begin on July 28th. The NFT is currently listed on Magic Edeng with a floor price of 0.00009 BTC, virtually identical to the public sale price. While the project did not disclose any BRC 2.0-related token airdrop opportunities, it still received an opportunity to interact with the official Best in Slot.

Pre-BRC 2.0 concept assets are currently mixed, and the threshold for obtaining whitelisting or official interaction is extremely low. Investors should proceed with caution.