According to @BitMEXResearch, the Bitcoin UTXO set expanded from 84 million to 169 million between December 2022 and September 2025 during the Ordinals period, an increase of roughly 85 million outputs, highlighting significant on-chain growth (source: @BitMEXResearch, Sep 8, 2025). According to @BitMEXResearch, BRC-20 tokens are identified as the key scaling problem driving this UTXO expansion in the Ordinals era (source: @BitMEXResearch, Sep 8, 2025). A larger UTXO set raises memory and storage requirements for full nodes, indicating increased resource load at the protocol level that traders should monitor for operational costs and throughput constraints (source: Bitcoin Developer Reference, UTXO set). Historically, surges in Ordinals and BRC-20 activity have coincided with higher BTC transaction fees and slower confirmations, which can affect exchange deposit and withdrawal timing and miner fee revenue sensitivity (source: mempool.space historical fee charts, May 2023).