Ethereum NFTs Can Be Migrated to Bitcoin, But There's a Catch

While Ethereum remains the dominant NFT platform in terms of trading volume and overall value, Bitcoin has undoubtedly swallowed up much of the buzz in the NFT space via the recent rise of the Ordinals protocol. And for Ethereum NFT holders who’d rather be on Bitcoin, there’s now a migration solution—but it’s a one-way trip.

Bitcoin Miladys, an NFT project that offers derivatives of the Ethereum-based Milady Maker profile picture (PFP) project, launched a bridge in partnership with marketplace Ordinals Market and the Xverse Bitcoin wallet. The BRC-721E token standard, as it’s called, enables the bridge to migrate artwork and data over to Bitcoin via Ordinals.

The bridge lets holders of Ethereum NFTs—defined by the ERC-721 token standard—effectively move the asset to the Bitcoin blockchain via a burn-and-mint process. The original Ethereum NFT is sent to an inaccessible “burn” address, which means it’s essentially destroyed on the chain, but then the asset is recreated on Bitcoin via the Ordinals protocol.

Bitcoin Miladys were initially minted on Ethereum, so the bridge was initially designed to let its holders bring them over to Bitcoin. But as the Ordinals Market page describes, the BRC-721E token standard and bridge can work with any compatible Ethereum NFT.

Some cross-chain bridges use an escrow wallet in the middle and hold the original NFT or asset, then create a new version on the target chain. That makes it possible to reclaim the original asset on the original chain by burning the secondary version.

But that’s not possible with NFTs migrated to Bitcoin via the BRC-721E process. As mentioned, it’s a one-way journey, and the original NFT is essentially destroyed in the process.

The process may still prove appealing to Bitcoin aficionados, or perhaps NFT holders who believe that the buzzy rise of Ordinals will give their migrated NFT more value. However, there are potential risks to switching blockchains.

For example, back in February, a Bored Ape Yacht Club owner burned his original Ethereum NFT and minted a new version on Bitcoin via Ordinals. Soon after, one of the Bored Ape co-creators at Yuga Labs tweeted that the holder had “effectively given up” the license to the myriad benefits and perks tied to Bored Ape NFT ownership.

The Ordinals protocol, launched in January, creates a way for people to “inscribe” digital media like artwork, PFPs, and even functional apps and games to the Bitcoin blockchain. Each “digital artifact” is inscribed to a single satoshi, which is 1/100,000,000 of a full Bitcoin.

More than 10 million inscriptions have been made to date, with that milestone reached on Monday. The month began with just 3 million total inscriptions, and the latest surge has been fueled primarily by the rise of the BRC-20 standard, which uses Ordinals inscriptions to let users mint fungible tokens on Bitcoin—such as meme tokens.