Since April 2024, Bitcoin Runes have emerged as the leading driver of onchain activity on the Bitcoin network, surpassing both Ordinals and BRC-20 in terms of transaction share. This marks a significant shift in the bandwidth usage among the Bitcoin standards.
Onchain activity serves as a key indicator of real-time market demand and overall community interest. Since its launch on April 20, Runes, a standard for creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin, has quickly outpaced the long-standing Ordinals and BRC-20 standards in terms of transaction share.
In 2024, the BRC-20 token standard dominated over 50% of the Bitcoin blockchain bandwidth for seven days. In contrast, Runes achieved the same feat in just ten days within three months of its launch. This rapid adoption underscores the strong interest and engagement within the ecosystem.
Runes’ dominance was notably observed on June 10 and 11, when the standard occupied 51% and 53% of the network bandwidth, respectively. This consistent high transaction share highlights the growing investor interest in Runes.
However, since March 30, BRC-20’s transaction share has struggled to keep pace with Bitcoin’s evolving standards. The surge in network activity, driven by Runes, benefits Bitcoin miners by helping maintain their monthly revenues. Since its launch, Runes has generated nearly 2,500 BTC, valued at approximately $170 million.
The majority of Runes transactions are attributed to minting, generating 1,377 BTC in mining fees, 61 BTC for etching, and 1,011 BTC for edicts. On April 23, the Bitcoin network processed over 1.6 million unique transactions between senders and receivers, marking the highest number of confirmed payments recorded.
The introduction of Bitcoin Runes has significantly contributed to the increase in total transactions on the Bitcoin network, highlighting its pivotal role in driving blockchain activity and miner revenue.