Runes is another phenomenon of the BTC ecosystem. Although the protocol launched in April, it has already surpassed BRC-20 in terms of on-chain activity. Moreover, Runes also overtook Ordinals, which was behind the first wave of interest in saving NFTs on the BTC blockchain. Will Runes become a new phenomenon driving the development of Bitcoin ecosystems?
Runes at the top. They outclass Ordinals and BRC-20
The Runes protocol emerged at a unique moment not only for the Bitcoin ecosystem, but for the entire cryptocurrency industry. This is, of course, about this year's BTC halving, which has a holistic impact on the digital asset market. Interestingly, there was enormous interest in the new protocol from the very beginning. Combined with the halving, interest in the new protocol has pushed fee prices to sky-high levels that have not been seen for a long time.
Since the introduction of bitcoin runes, a standard for creating NFT tokens on the BTC blockchain, the interest in bitcoin runes has been systematically growing. From the beginning of 2024, the BRC-20 token standard occupied 50% of the Bitcoin network's bandwidth for seven days. Runes Protocol achieved this result in the first 10 days of its debut. The last dominance of the Runes protocol over the Bitcoin blockchain was recorded on June 10 and 11. The new protocol occupied 51% (June 10) and 53% (June 11) of the network bandwidth, respectively.
The BTC ecosystem is growing at an increasingly faster pace
Both the Runes and Ordinals protocols are perfect examples of the expansion of the BTC ecosystem. Although the possibility of minting NFT tokens on Satoshi Nakamoto's blockchain has strongly divided the community of the oldest cryptocurrency, bitcoin miners are strong enthusiasts of this solution. The increase in network activity is helping miners maintain monthly revenues at record levels.
Since its launch, Runes have generated almost 2,500 BTC, representing approximately $170 million in market value. Most transactions in Runes are attributed to minting. What will the future of Runes, Ordinals and BRC-20 look like? Everything indicates that the development of the BTC ecosystem is generally very beneficial for the entire community. Of course, apart from the fact that the limited network capacity is used and temporary peaks in transaction fees.
