The total amount of Bitcoin that miners have received from Runes transactions over the past six days has been less than 2 Bitcoin, a sharp decline from the record 884 Bitcoin that they received on April 24. The number of average daily transactions for Runes, a new token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain, has decreased by more than 88% since it peaked earlier this month.
Dune Analytics data from Crypto Koryo shows that between June 22 and June 28, the average daily Runes transactions were 37,820, nearly a 90% decrease from the 331,040 daily average observed between June 9 and 15. Included in it are 23,238 transactions from June 24, which is the fewest since the protocol’s introduction on April 20, during Bitcoin’s fourth halving event.
During the past week, such transactions have made up only 4.9–11.1% of all Bitcoin transactions. Since Bitcoin miner fees are still being affected by the previous halving event, the dramatic decline in Runes transactions has had a tremendous influence on them. From its record 884 Bitcoin on April 24, runes have contributed fewer than 2 Bitcoin in miner fees over the last six days in a row, a sharp decline.
Even less has been charged in fees for BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals inscriptions throughout the same period. Originally, these protocols were marketed as a way for Bitcoin miners to make money that they could not have obtained through regular peer-to-peer Bitcoin transfers.
The 50% decrease in block subsidy was covered by fees from these Runes and Ordinals during the first few days following the April 20 halving event; however, trading volumes have been mainly erratic since then.
Since its April 20 introduction, Runes—a project created by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Ordinals—has been promoted as a more effective means of producing new tokens on the Bitcoin network than both alternative alternatives and the BRC-20 token standard.
The pricing and decline in network fees have led to a significant decline in Bitcoin’s hash price, which is a key indicator of miner earnings, to almost its lowest point ever. On June 19, Bitcoin terms fell to their lowest level in more than 14 years as miner reserves collapsed to 1.90 million Bitcoin.