Arbitrum, a layer-2 blockchain on Ethereum, said Friday that all systems were operational after a sustained surge of Bitcoin Ordinals-inspired inscriptions triggered a sequencer to stop, resulting in a temporary outage that lasted about an hour and a half. 

Hildobby, a pseudonymous data researcher at VC firm Dragonfly, said in a post on X that 90% of transactions had been inscriptions before the chain stopped.

"Hourly inscriptions on Arbitrum were ramping up in the hours leading up to its halt," they wrote, noting that an inscription called "fair" had been the one that triggered the halt. 

Gas prices stabilized 

Arbitrum said in a status update Friday afternoon that gas prices on the network had stabilized, with all operations now "back to normal." It’s continuing to …