With the Approach of the BRC 2.0 Upgrade, the Leading NFT Project Adderrels Surges 100-Fold in a Month, Drawing Market Attention
This article will introduce the contents of the BRC 2.0 upgrade and review related conceptual assets and gameplay in the market.
(Background: Dialogue with BRC-20 Founder: Ethereum Traitor Closes for 48 Hours, Rewriting Bitcoin Ecosystem History)
(Background Supplement: As Bitcoin Repeatedly Hits New Highs, Marking the End of the Inscription Era)
Recently, with the upcoming BRC 2.0 upgrade and the wealth effect triggered by related assets, some Degen investors have once again turned their attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem. In the past month, the transaction price of the leading NFT project Adderrels in the BRC 2.0 series skyrocketed from 0.0001269 BTC (approximately $15) to 0.019 BTC (approximately $2,300), achieving an investment return rate of over 100 times.
What changes will the BRC 2.0 upgrade bring to the BRC 20 protocol? What peripheral assets are currently available, and how can one participate? In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will briefly introduce the BRC 2.0 upgrade and review the conceptual assets and gameplay 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, the 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 warrants (RWA).
The Best in Slot team began planning this upgrade in January 2025 and has received broad support from the BRC 20 ecosystem, including the Layer 1 Foundation led by BRC 20 protocol founder domo, Unisat, OKX Wallet, and others. In brief, BRC 2.0 is not a sudden “wild protocol,” but rather an action jointly planned by the core builders to bring BRC 2.0 back into public view.
However, the implementation of programmability in the BRC 2.0 upgrade is relatively inferior and can be classified as an off-chain solution. As shown in the figure below, this is the programmable module designed by Best in Slot, where the EVM executor and BRC 20 indexer are integrated, and the final state updates are entirely executed by the BRC 20 indexer on the Bitcoin chain. In other words, the “EVM executor” does not run on the public chain, and users can only trust the correctness of the contract interaction results updated on-chain by the BRC 20 indexer. Additionally, Best in Slot announced that it will create a gas-free application chain for BTCFi to eliminate the 10-minute delay and transaction fee barriers of the Bitcoin main network.
As a result, some in the market believe that the method of programmability in the BRC 2.0 upgrade is overly centralized and carries the risk of a single point of failure.
In addition to programmability, Best in Slot also launched “Ordinal Locker” to enhance interoperability between BRC 20 and Ordinals. This feature utilizes Bitcoin’s time-lock mechanism, allowing users to lock Ordinals assets in order to unlock gameplay such as mining, staking, airdrops, and voting for BRC 20. The “Ordinal Locker” feature supports five locking time options: 1 hour, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. This feature is also the reason for the rapid increase in the floor price of the leading NFT Adderrels in the BRC 2.0 concept.
BRC 2.0 Will Go Live on the Mainnet on August 14
According to Best in Slot’s official roadmap, the successful completion of the BRC 2.0 upgrade requires two phases:
Phase 1: Enable 6-character BRC 20 tokens and launch a launchpad
The first phase will take place at block height 909969 (approximately August 14). BRC 2.0 will enable 6-character BRC 20 tokens when it goes live on the Bitcoin mainnet (currently, BRC 20 tokens only support 4-character and 5-character tokens). At that time, anyone will be able to deploy 6-character BRC 20 tokens. These new 6-character BRC 20 tokens will also immediately gain programmability.
Furthermore, Best in Slot will launch a customized launchpad on the mainnet for creating programmable virtual assets based on BRC 2.0.
Phase 2: Enable programmability for all BRC 20 tokens
The second phase will take place at block 914888 (approximately September 17). After completion, both 4-character and 5-character BRC 20 tokens will gain programmability.
BRC 2.0 Revives the “Pre-Runes” Gameplay
Although 6-character BRC 20 tokens cannot be issued before the BRC 2.0 upgrade, similar to the development of various platforms before the official launch of the Runes protocol in 2024, the market has already begun to hype the “pre-BRC 2.0” conceptual assets. These NFT projects all claim to airdrop BRC 2.0 tokens in the future. However, there are also some projects that are simply “riding the wave.” Below is a recent list of popular “pre-BRC 2.0” assets, and investors are advised to discern for themselves.
Adderrels
LIQUID
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 opened for free minting on July 25, and the current floor price is 0.000078 BTC (approximately $8), with a market cap of only $400,000. According to the official statement, players holding NFTs do not need to stake to receive token airdrops.
Early Birds
Early Birds claims to be the first BRC 2.0 NFT with staking functionality. There are a total of 5,000 NFTs, each corresponding to 1,000 birdie tokens. These tokens will be airdropped after the BRC 2.0 upgrade is completed. Currently, the floor price of Early Birds is 0.00063 BTC, with 1,877 NFTs staked, resulting in a staking rate of 37.5%. Staked NFTs will earn more token rewards.
buttmullets
Buttmullets is an NFT project closely related to Adderrels. All Adderrels staking addresses are eligible for the whitelist and will receive token airdrops in the future. Due to its association with Adderrels, minting started at midnight on July 28, with a total supply of 3,333, priced at 0.00012 BTC. These mints sold out quickly upon release, and the current floor price is 0.00058 BTC (approximately $60).
Griftmo
Griftmo has a total supply of 3,888, with a public sale price of 0.00008 BTC, and minting will begin on July 28. This NFT is currently listed on Magic Eden, with a floor price of 0.00009 BTC, nearly equal to the public sale price. Although the project has not disclosed any token airdrop opportunities related to BRC 2.0, it has still gained interaction opportunities with the official Best in Slot.
Currently, the “pre-BRC 2.0” conceptual assets are mixed, with very low thresholds for obtaining whitelists or official interactions. Investors should act with caution.
