A Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT owner made headlines over the weekend for permanently removing their prized digital asset from circulation through a process called “burning.”
The BAYC #1626 Ape was burned in a symbolic gesture as its owner aimed to shift the asset’s underlying blockchain from Ethereum to Bitcoin.
NFTs are unique digital assets that signify ownership of an item, often digital art. BAYC #1626 was sold on OpenSea last November for 108 Ethereum, equivalent to nearly $432,000 at the time of the transaction or around $169,000 at today’s prices.
Jason Williams, the Bored Ape owner, claimed to have burned the NFT to prevent it from being sold ever again, at least on Ethereum’s network. The asset’s ownership was linked to a digital token recorded on the Ethereum network, which can be traded until it’s burned.
The burn was made possible through Ordinals’ newly developed feature, Teleburn, which allows users to assign an existing asset from another network to a Bitcoin Inscription while removing it from circulation. The feature effectively transfers the token between chains, in the eyes of those who created it.
Rodarmor and Hamilton, the creators of the Ordinals feature, oversaw Williams as he burned the ape. Teleburn is a hasty development, combining the words teleport and burn, as the feature was tested on Rodarmor’s ENS domain before it was used for BAYC #1626.
Despite the increasing number of Inscriptions on Bitcoin, few marketplaces are available for people to trade them, and a significant number of buyers and sellers are linked together through Ordinals’ Discord server.
However, Williams believes his Ape now exists on Bitcoin, and he’s excited to see how it plays out.
