As Bitcoin usage for everyday transactions grows, the network saw a record number of confirmed payments on April 23, just three days into the new halving cycle that began on April 20. On that day, the Bitcoin network processed over 1.6 million unique transactions.
Data from Blockchain.com and Glassnode indicates a strong link between the spike in daily Bitcoin transactions and the launch of Bitcoin Runes—an alternative to Bitcoin Ordinals and the BRC-20 protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain. According to Dune Analytics, on April 23, Runes accounted for 81.3% of all Bitcoin transactions.
Despite the initial surge in Runes transactions, by April 29, standard BTC transactions regained dominance, comprising 77.8% of all network activity, with Runes at 18.8%. Other types of transactions included ordinals (1.2%) and BRC-20 protocols (2.3%).
The introduction of Bitcoin Runes transactions has been beneficial for the mining industry. Two major U.S. mining companies, Stronghold Digital Mining and Marathon, have noted both financial and operational benefits from Runes, as reported by Cointelegraph. Since the halving, Rune transactions have generated over 1,200 BTC in transaction fees for miners.
Although the excitement around Runes is waning, Ignas, a pseudonymous decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher, views it as a significant market opportunity. In an April 17 post on platform X, Ignas noted the potential for profit from new Rune token airdrops amidst a surge of FOMO, similar to the post-NFT boom.
Runes and BRC-20 tokens represent new fungible token standards designed to enhance Bitcoin’s utility in what’s being called Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi.
