How a quant sniped millions from Bitcoin Ordinals
Ordinals, this year’s incarnation of NFTs on Bitcoin, have enjoyed a slight resurgence in recent weeks. A bubbly launch peaked on May 7 of this year and quickly subsided, but now Bitcoin’s rally in November has renewed interest in Ordinals. Sniffing an opportunity for profit and prepared with months of practice since May, quant traders lurked. Their opportunity arrived this week at Magic Eden on Bitcoin, an NFT marketplace. They sniped millions. The most highly anticipated Ordinals project of the season, Ordibots, had announced its minting ceremony on the most prestigious Ordinals exchange, Magic Eden. A timeline for its launch was widely publicized. Requirements for whitelisting were extensive. Ordibots’ community discussions were vibrant. The minting ceremony had a tantalizing countdown, with buyers setting alarms to attend – ready to inscribe their NFT on-time. Collectors anticipated the mark-to-market capitalization of the collection to reach untold millions of dollars. Or...