Bitcoin Network Sees Surge in Confirmed Payments Amid Growing Adoption
In a significant development for Bitcoin (BTC), the cryptocurrency’s network recently witnessed a surge in confirmed payments on April 23. Just three days after entering the new halving cycle on April 20, the Bitcoin network processed over 1.6 million unique transactions between senders and receivers.
Comparing data from Blockchain.com and Glassnode, it becomes evident that the launch of Bitcoin Runes, an alternative to Bitcoin Ordinals, and the BRC-20 protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain, directly contributed to this spike in daily Bitcoin transactions. According to data from Dune Analytics, Runes accounted for an impressive 81.3% of all Bitcoin transactions on April 23.
However, BTC eventually regained its dominant position in terms of transactions over the network. As of April 29, BTC represented 77.8% of all Bitcoin transactions, with Runes contributing 18.8%. Other transactions on the Bitcoin network include ordinals (1.2%) and BRC-20 (2.3%) transactions.
The rise in the number of Bitcoin Runes transactions has proven beneficial for the mining industry. Two major mining firms in the United States, Stronghold Digital Mining and Marathon, have emphasized the positive impact of Runes from both financial and functional perspectives.
Since the Bitcoin halving, Rune transactions have generated over 1,200 BTC worth of transaction fees for miners. Despite the waning hype around Runes, Ignas, a pseudonymous decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher, views it as a genuine market opportunity. In a post on X on April 17, Ignas highlighted the potential of Runes and BRC-20 tokens to create more utility for Bitcoin in the emerging paradigm of Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi.
To gain a deeper understanding of Bitcoin Runes and how they differ from BRC-20 tokens, refer to this comprehensive guide by Cointelegraph.
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