“Please refrain from deposits at the moment. Inbound at max capacity,” wrote one community manager.
Bitcoin infrastructure developer Nostr Assets has paused deposits following record-high user activity.
In a Dec. 5 announcement posted on Telegram, the Nostr Assets team warned users to “await further announcements and do not attempt to deposit into NostrAssets for the time being.” The service — which allows users to transact satoshis, or 1/100 millionth of a Bitcoin (BTC), through the Lightning and Taproot networks — claims to have onboarded over 70,000 new users and attracted 280 BTC ($11.8 million) in new deposits since Oct.
On Dec. 4, Fiatjaf, the creator of the Nostr protocol — which allows users to interchange their social profiles and followers on different platforms — alleged that the Nostr Asset team was operating as an affinity scam.
Nostr Assets dismissed the allegations as “unfounded,” writing:
“NostrAssets utilizes Nostr, Taproot Assets, and Lightning in its construction, making it pertinent to Nostr. However, it’s crucial to emphasize that Nostr is a decentralised, open-sourced and censorship-resistant relay network that anyone can build on.”
1/ This thread is aimed at addressing the unfounded claims made by @fiatjaf. https://t.co/mcceRECEWL
— Nostr Assets Protocol (@NostrAssets) December 3, 2023
Meanwhile, the total volume of nonfungible token sales on the Bitcoin network has now surpassed $1 billion.
Bitcoin Ordinals is a numbering system that assigns a unique number to each individual satoshi, enabling their tracking and transfer.