User activity on the Bitcoin protocol Runes has decreased, along with its share in transaction fees, compared to the first week of trading.
According to a dashboard on Dune, fee amounts have been steadily declining, with only two days in May surpassing $1 million.
Since its launch on April 20, coinciding with the halving, the protocol has generated 2286 BTC in fee revenue for miners, with 1289 BTC on the first day alone. Amid the excitement surrounding Runes, the average network fee surged to a record $128.45.
In the initial days following the halving, transaction fees from tokens on the protocol dominated the overall metric. TeraWulf CEO Nazar Khan acknowledged that Runes significantly boosted miners’ revenues post-halving.
However, by May 10, this figure had dropped to 7.2% and has since fluctuated between 10-14%.
Consequently, the number of transactions on the protocol has also fallen. The number of new users is steadily decreasing: although the cumulative number of interacting wallets approached 1.8 million, only 13,728 addresses connected to the protocol on May 12.
Bitcoin developer and Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor introduced Runes in September 2023. The protocol enables the issuance of fungible tokens on the blockchain of the first cryptocurrency. Unlike BRC-20, it employs the UTXO model, preventing network congestion.
Analysts at Franklin Templeton identified Runes, alongside Ordinals, L2 solutions, and DeFi primitives, as a key driver of Bitcoin innovation revival.