On April 20, a halving took place on the Bitcoin network, and the Runes protocol was released. Since then, the blockchain has processed 3.6 million transactions with tokens based on this standard. In total, the project received $135.6 million in commissions.
The Runes protocol has received 2,129 BTC in fees—$135.6 million—since its release, according to Dune. The project was launched immediately after the fourth halving on the Bitcoin network.
It is noteworthy that most of the commissions occur in the first days after the halving:
The amount of commissions received by the Runes protocol in Bitcoin (BTC). Source: Dune.
At the same time, transactions with tokens created on the basis of Runes account for a share of 31% at the time of writing. Immediately after the halving it was up to 81%:
The share of transactions with Runes tokens in the total volume of transactions in the Bitcoin network. Source: Dune.
In total, the network processed 3.6 million transactions with Runes tokens. This significantly increased the load on the blockchain.
We previously reported that on the day of halving, the average commission on the Bitcoin network exceeded $100. As of April 25, 2024, it dropped to $12.9:
Changes in the average commission in the Bitcoin network. Source: BitInfoCharts.
The jump in fees led to the fact that the income of Bitcoin miners increased instead of the expected fall.