Inscription, which once stood at the starting point of this bull market, about to be revived?

Amid the recent poor performance of the overall market, the sluggish altcoin market, and the lifeless "junk market" of Meme, the new inscription protocol HRC-20

Amid the recent lackluster performance of the broader market, sluggish altcoin activity, and the dwindling hype surrounding Meme's "junk market," a new inscription protocol has emerged, capturing the attention of the crypto community.

The BRC-20 and L1 rising star Hyperliquid chain now hosts a total of BRC-20 "truck" token MASK, which requires 2.1 million mints (10 per token) and has sparked interest.

On the evening of February 23, the token drove up the Bitcoin network gas to 14 satoshis/byte, making it one of the few "inscription trucks" that have shown promise for minting in recent months and attracted over 10,000 addresses. (Odaily Note: Inscription trucks refer to BRC20 tokens that require excessive minting times, consuming significant funds and time.)

Meanwhile, Hyperliquid L1 saw the minting of its first HRC-20 token, HYPI, at 5:00 on February 21. With a total supply of 21 million tokens, HYPI was fully minted within 5 hours.

The official bid for the Hyperliquid spot trading quota at a cost of $109,154.01 and launched trading at 5:00 this morning, introducing the corresponding packaged asset wHYPI on the Hyperliquid spot trading market.

Inscription revival or a reappearance?

The rapid growth of short-term FOMO sentiment often creates illusions for those involved.

MASK's popularity is fleeting

BRC-20 token MASK was deployed on March 10, 2023. Despite the height of BRC-20 inscription, MASK remained unminted, leading some players to be trapped at the highest minting rate of 30 satoshis/byte last year.

So, why is this "old relic" suddenly experiencing a surge in popularity? Within the community, two speculations are circulating.

One suggests that MASK is a "miner conspiracy," where miners are minting a large quantity of MASKs to create an illusion of on-chain prosperity, ultimately driving players to FOMO and generating higher Bitcoin fees.

The other theory proposes that MASK is a new "inscription promotion," leveraging the "mysterious oriental power." Regardless of the true nature, as long as it can introduce sustained traffic and attention to inscription, it serves a positive purpose.

On February 23, MASK's minting progress reached 70%, and its unit price on the OKX inscription market stood at $0.3.

Initially, expectations were high that MASK would be fully minted on February 24, further driving up its price due to community sentiment. However, MASK enthusiasm dissipated faster than anticipated.

As of today (February 25), its progress has only advanced to 88%, and the unit price has dropped to $0.1.振り返ってみると、2月23日の価格がすでにピークだった。

Perhaps MASK will eventually be minted, but its final fate will likely mirror that of the inscription truck eorb, which also had 2.1 million copies and gradually faded into obscurity.

Lackluster performance of HRC-20

HRC-20 is a homogeneous token standard launched by the inscription protocol HPS Protocol on Hyperliquid L1.

HPS Protocol has introduced the concept of Hyperscriptions on Hyperliquid L1 and HyperEVM. HYPI is the first officially issued HRC-20 token and currently the only one, with 2231 holding addresses.

At present, almost all functions of the HPS Protocol platform are unavailable, rendering users incapable of deploying and transferring HRC-20 tokens independently.

Therefore, to facilitate rapid trading, HPS Protocol opted to initially list HYPI's wrapped asset wHYPI on the Hyperliquid spot trading market.

Upon the commencement of trading, addresses holding HYPI will receive a 1:1 wHYPI airdrop. Once the official HRC-20 market launches, users can directly redeem wHYPI for HYPI, maintaining the total circulation of HYPI and wHYPI at 21 million.

A single HYPI (100 pieces per sheet) incurs a minting cost of $2-3. Prior to its launch on the Hyperliquid spot market, the highest double-pledge transaction price in the community's over-the-counter market reached $25 per sheet, yielding an estimated market value of $5.25 million, roughly 10 times the minting cost.

I had anticipated that HYPI, as the first inscription on the Hyperliquid chain, would experience some growth after being introduced on the Hyperliquid spot market.

However, much like MASK, wHYPI began to decline following its launch. At the time of writing, its price stands at $0.024 (2.4 per piece), corresponding to