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Bitcoin’s new standard token “Runes” faces a significant decline in transactions
Bitcoin’s new standard token “Runes” faces a significant decline in transactions
Runes has seen a dramatic decline in the average number of daily transactions, down more than 88% from its peak in June. Second to Crypto Koryo on Dune, the new token standard on Bitcoin saw an average of 37,820 transactions between June 22 and 28. This marks a sharp decline from the daily average of 331,040 recorded between June 9 and 15.
On June 24, the protocol recorded just 23,238 transactions, the lowest number since its launch during Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20. Since its inception, Runes transactions have only accounted for between 4.9% and 11.1% of all Bitcoin transactions over the past week.
This sharp drop in Runes transactions has had a significant impact on Bitcoin miner fees, which have been struggling since the last halving event. Over the past six days, Runes has contributed less than 2 Bitcoin to miner fees, a stark contrast to the record 884 Bitcoin generated on April 24.
Over the same period, fees from other protocols, such as Ordinals memberships and BRC-20 tokens, have also been minimal. Initially, these protocols were seen as promising new revenue streams for miners, who traditionally relied on standard peer-to-peer Bitcoin transfers for network fees.
After the April 20 halving, Runes and Ordinals fees helped offset the 50% block subsidy reduction for a few days, but trading volumes have since become unpredictable. Additionally, Bitcoin miners’ reserves fell to 1.90 million Bitcoins on June 19, the lowest level in over 14 years in Bitcoin terms.