This is how BRC-20 tokens and images accelerate Bitcoin node verification

In his latest report, BitMex research investigated how BRC-20 tokens and ordinal images influence Bitcoin node verification.

The study looked at ordinal-related data about Bitcoin, including the transactional count and the data size, to determine their impact on junction operators.

BRC-20 tokens voltage bitcoin nodes more than images

The report of 8 September unveiled That BRC-20 tokens cause more problems for some Bitcoin node runners than ordinal images. It is striking that the first 92.5 million transactions forms, while the latter is only 2.7 million, but both use about 30 GB of storage. However, BRC-20 transactions put greater pressure on nodes, while larger image-based ordinals have little to no effect on performance.

Bitmex explained that large ordinal images are easier for nodes for processing than regular transactions, because they are stored in a non-led part of the Taproot witness and do not need any signature checks. This makes them less demanding to verify and sometimes even useful for scaling because they take blockspace without adding to the UTXO set.

On the other hand, BRC-20 transactions work more as regular Bitcoin activity. Although they are smaller, they have expanded the UTXO set, grow from 84 million to 169 million between December 2022 and September 2025. This increase is create Challenges for junction runners, especially those operating pruning. Data shows that such transactions have paid higher costs for BlockSpace, which has contributed more than 5,000 BTC since the protocol has been introduced.

Tests show that larger ordinals can accelerate verification

BitMex has performed different tests for almost three years to measure how quickly blocks of blocks could download and verify with different levels of ordinal-related data. The results suggest that large quantities of “random data” can accelerate blockchain verification, with approximately 11% of the differences in speeds due to larger inscriptions.

However, the researchers warned that the results do not mean that ordinal images are good for Bitcoin. This is because data-heavy inscriptions use a lot of blockspace that can push financial transactions that are central to the purpose of the network.

Elsewhere, a separate study of Glassnode showed that ordinals and BRC-20 tokens do not move regular Bitcoin transactions. The main analyst of the company explained that they bring more value, reimbursements and data to each block instead.

Moreover, Bitmex emphasized that the findings are not convincing because factors such as internet speed and hardware differences can influence performance. They also encouraged further tests and noted that any small efficiency for junctions should be weighed at the broader costs for the Bitcoin network.