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Bitcoin Runes Protocol Witnesses Declining Activity and Fee Revenue
Bitcoin Runes Protocol Witnesses Declining Activity and Fee Revenue
The Runes protocol, known for allowing the creation of fungible tokens on Bitcoin blockchain, has seen a significant decrease in activity compared to its first week of trading. A notable decline in activity was observed on May 10, with fewer new mintages and new wallets interacting with the protocol compared to previous periods.
Second According to data from Dune analytics, revenue from protocol fees has been steadily declining. While Runes still generates hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in fees on the Bitcoin blockchain, total fees have only exceeded $1 million on two occasions in the past twelve days, indicating a notable downward trend. The launch of the Runes protocol took place three weeks ago, on April 19, coinciding with the latest Bitcoin halving. This debut sparked excitement among investors, leading to a surge in transaction fees and record earnings for Bitcoin miners, who generated over $135 million in fees in the first week alone.
However, Rune-related transactions, which initially dominated the Bitcoin network, have gradually declined since April 24. On April 23, Runes accounted for the majority of transactions, reaching 81.3% of the total, while Bitcoin transactions dropped to 18.15%, with Ordinals. and BRC-20 transactions at 0.1% each.
Following this decline, Rune transactions continued to decline until May 2nd. However, as of May 3, Runes began to show signs of recovery. On May 4th and 5th Runes managed to regain a transaction share of over 60%. The increase in transaction fees was initially welcomed by the mining community, offsetting the reduction in earnings following the Bitcoin halving. However, Bitcoin miners’ total revenue fell below $30 million per day in May.