Bitcoin’s New Token Standard ‘Runes’ Faces Significant Decline in Transactions

Runes has experienced a dramatic decline in its daily average transaction count, dropping over 88% from its peak in June. According to Crypto Koryo on Dune, the new token standard on Bitcoin saw average transactions between June 22 and June 28 of 37,820. This marks a steep fall from the 331,040 daily average recorded during the period of June 9 to June 15.

On June 24, the protocol saw just 23,238 transactions, the lowest number since its launch during Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20. Since its inception, Runes transactions have only represented between 4.9% and 11.1% of all Bitcoin transactions over the past week.

This sharp decline in Runes transactions has significantly impacted Bitcoin miner fees, which have been struggling since the last halving event. In the past six days, Runes have contributed less than 2 Bitcoin in miner fees, a stark contrast to the record 884 Bitcoin generated on April 24.

Fees from other protocols like Ordinals inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens have also been minimal during the same period. Initially, these protocols were seen as promising new revenue streams for miners, who traditionally relied on standard peer-to-peer Bitcoin transfers for network fees.

Following the April 20 halving event, fees from Runes and Ordinals helped offset the 50% reduction in block subsidy for a few days, but trading volumes have since become unpredictable. Furthermore, Bitcoin miner reserves dropped to 1.90 million Bitcoin on June 19, the lowest level in over 14 years in Bitcoin terms.