Updated: May 11, 2024, 6:17 PM EDT
Bitcoin’s novel Runes protocol has been active on the blockchain for three weeks since its launch on April 19, coinciding with Bitcoin’s latest halving event. Runes’ blockbuster launch helped generate record fees for Bitcoin miners as excited investors battled for block space, with Runes generating $135 million in Bitcoin transaction fees in its first week. Generated more revenue.
But activity after the first week of trading has generally slowed, according to a Dune analytics dashboard compiled by Runes Is. May 10th saw the lowest level of activity in the Runes protocol. Since launch, it has had the lowest number of new mints interacting with the protocol and the lowest number of new wallets.
Data from The Block also shows a steady decline in the fees generated by the protocol. Runes is still generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees per day on the Bitcoin blockchain, but its total fees have only topped $1 million twice in the past 12 days.
Of course, many platforms struggle with early adoption, and Runes is by no means an unknown. According to Magic Eden data, several rune collections have market capitalizations in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Runes developer Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, also unveiled an audio reaction generation art project at a recent Ordinals event in Hong Kong.
Like Ordinals, Runes enables multiple token standards based on the Bitcoin blockchain for the first time. Runes leverages Bitcoin’s UTXO model and OP_RETURN opcode to provide a more efficient Bitcoin tokenization solution than the BRC20 standard, leading to primarily memecoin trading activity on Bitcoin, which recently processed its 1 billionth transaction.
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