Runes Tokens Dominate Bitcoin Transactions

On April 24, tokens on the Runes protocol accounted for 51.5% of daily transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Traditional BTC operations comprised 46.9%, according to a dashboard on Dune.

The previous day, these figures reached 81% and 18.8%, respectively. The combined share of Ordinals and BRC-20 did not exceed 2%.

The excitement surrounding the launch of Runes on halving day, April 20, pushed the average transaction fees to a record $128.45.

In the following days, fees adjusted closer to previous levels. According to BitInfoCharts, on April 24, the figure was $28.06.

Miners’ daily revenue fell from a record $107.75 million on April 20 to $48.9 million (Blockchain.com). The share of fees in these figures was $81 million (~75%) and $17.1 million (~35%).

Despite Runes’ dominance in online activity following the halving-related surge, traditional BTC transactions began to generate more revenue again. On April 24, traditional Bitcoin operations accounted for 65.1% of total fees.

The record fee revenue on halving day led some to speculate that the network is shifting towards compensating miners primarily through transaction activity.

Bitcoin is on a record 100 block streak of transaction fees exceeding the block subsidy. Great to see the experiment playing out and proving the theory that fees can sustain the thermodynamic security budget! pic.twitter.com/CoRm6P40HR

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) April 20, 2024

However, CoinShares estimates that the average share of fees in revenue will be around 15% in the coming months. The company suggested that only on peak days will this figure reach 30%.

Analysts at Bernstein concluded that Bitcoin is experiencing a “DeFi summer” moment amid a record surge in fees earned by miners thanks to Runes.