Activity on the Runes protocol has experienced a notable decrease since its initial week of trading. On May 10, there was a significant decline in activity, with very few new mints and wallets interacting with the protocol.
According to a Dune Analytics dashboard, the protocol’s fee revenue has been steadily declining. While Runes still earns hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees on a daily basis on the Bitcoin blockchain, the total fees have only exceeded $1 million twice in the past 12 days, indicating a downward trend.
Runes is a new Bitcoin token standard that enables users to create fungible tokens on the blockchain. It was launched by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Ordinals, which introduced nonfungible tokens on Bitcoin.
The Runes protocol made its debut on April 20, coinciding with the latest Bitcoin halving event. The launch of Runes sparked a frenzy among investors, resulting in a surge in transaction fees and record-breaking profits for Bitcoin miners. During the first week alone, over $135 million was generated in fees.
Data from Dune Analytics reveals that until April 24, the majority of transactions on the Bitcoin network were related to Runes. On April 23, Runes claimed 81.3% of the transaction share, pushing Bitcoin’s share down to 18.15%, with Ordinals and BRC-20 transactions accounting for 0.1% each.
From May 2 onwards, Runes transactions consistently declined until May 2. However, from May 3, there has been a gradual recovery, with Runes reclaiming a transaction share above 60% on May 4 and 5.
The mining community welcomed the increase in fees, as their earnings had significantly decreased following the Bitcoin halving. In May, total revenue for Bitcoin miners dropped to under $30 million per day.
Similar to Ordinals, Runes introduced a new token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin recently surpassed one billion transactions.
Runes has already achieved notable success, with several Rune collections having market capitalizations in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to data from Magic Eden.
Furthermore, Rodarmor recently hinted at an innovative audioreactive generative art project during an Ordinals event in Hong Kong, further showcasing the platform’s potential.
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