- The Bitcoin Runes protocol has seen a sharp decline in activity, which could spell trouble for miners and their earnings.
- Runes to Bitcoin fees have plummeted from a dominant 77.3% to just 21.1%.
- The decrease in activity on the protocol and Bitcoin Ordinals has caused miners’ revenue to plunge.
Bitcoin Runes, a new token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain, is experiencing a significant drop in activity, causing concern for miners and their potential earnings.
Bitcoin Runes: A Promising Start Followed by a Sharp Decline
Launched less than a month ago, Bitcoin Runes was developed by Casey Rodarmor, the same developer behind Bitcoin Ordinals. The protocol was designed to enhance the creation and management of fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. Despite a promising start, with over $135 million in fees generated in its first week, recent data from Dune Analytics shows that activity on the protocol has significantly decreased.
Impact on Miners’ Revenue
At its peak, Runes’ fees accounted for 77.3% of the total Bitcoin fees. However, this has now dropped to just 21.1%, with other fees on the blockchain taking up the remaining 78.9%. This decline could pose a serious risk to miners, who initially benefited from the creation and generation of new rune units. According to on-chain data from Glassnode, miners’ revenue was 533.69 BTC on the 11th of May, a significant decline compared to the 1677.09 BTC recorded on the 20th of April.
Declining Interest in Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 Tokens
It’s not just the Runes protocol that’s experiencing a decrease in activity. Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens are also seeing a drop in interest. BRC-20 tokens are fungible tokens created on Bitcoin using the Taproot update. At the time of writing, the price of ORDI, the largest BRC-20 token by market cap, was $36.37, a staggering 61.88% decrease from its all-time high. Furthermore, ORDI’s volume has also been decreasing, currently standing at $628 million, down from over $6 billion in December 2023.
Conclusion
The sharp decline in activity on the Bitcoin Runes protocol, as well as Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens, could spell trouble for miners and their potential earnings. Unless activity begins to improve, the future outlook for these tokens and the miners who rely on them could be bleak.
