Bitcoin's average block size has reached record highs over 2.5MB for the first time since 2009, fuelled by the introduction of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) protocol Ordinals last month.

According to Blockchain.com, block size data shows a rise in Bitcoin block size from the start of February, rising over 2MB following the launch of the Ordinals Protocol.

A previous report by Cointelegraph states that those within the Bitcoin mining ecosystem have made more than $600,000 processing transactions of Ordinals, so-called Bitcoin-based nonfungible tokens.

The Ordinals protocol was launched in January by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, permitting the creation of Bitcoin' digital artifacts' on the network. These may include PDFs, JPEG images and audio files.

These 'digital artifacts' can be inscribed to an individual Satoshi, Cointelegraph reports, that makes up one whole Bitcoin, with each BTC comprising 100,000,000 Satoshis.

"Individual Satoshis can be inscribed with arbitrary content, creating unique Bitcoin-native digital artifacts that can be held in Bitcoin wallets and transferred using Bitcoin transactions. Inscriptions are as durable, immutable, secure, and decentralised as Bitcoin itself," Rodarmor stated.

The average Bitcoin block size was between 0.7MB and 1.5MB from July 2021 up until this month. As of 5th February, Bitcoin's average block size exceeded 2MB for the first time, and at the time of writing stood at 2.2MB.

In addition, following the launch of Bitcoin Ordinals, the network reached an all-time high number of 44 million non-zero addresses, according to Glassnode data.

Glassnode defines the arrival of Ordinals as a "new and unique moment in Bitcoin history," whereby innovation creates network activity without the "classical transfer of coin volume for monetary purposes."