Over the past six days, Runes’ ecosystem has contributed less than 2 BTC per day to miners, a significant decrease compared to the record of 881 BTC set on April 24th.
The trading volume surrounding the Bitcoin ecosystem’s new token standard, Runes, as reported by Crypto Koryo’s Dune Analytics data, averaged 37,820 transactions daily from June 22nd to 28th. This marks a nearly 90% drop from the daily average of 331,040 transactions observed from June 9th to 15th. On June 24th, transactions plummeted to just 23,238, marking the lowest since Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20th.
At the launch of the Runes protocol, co-created by Bitcoin Ordinals protocol founder Casey Rodarmor, alongside Bitcoin’s latest halving event at block height 84,000 on April 20th, it initially sparked market excitement. Transaction fees briefly surpassed the effects of the halving, reaching 40.751 BTC.
However, over the last six days, Runes’ ecosystem has averaged less than 2 BTC per day in contributions to miners, contrasting sharply with the record high of 881 BTC on April 24th.
Miners are lamenting this downturn, with smaller operators surrendering. The income of Bitcoin miners primarily derives from block rewards and transaction fees, where transaction fees fluctuate based on network congestion and transaction volumes. While the Ordinals protocol and BRC-20 tokens offer lower transaction fees to miners compared to Runes, they were initially seen as potential new revenue sources for Bitcoin miners.
As Bitcoin’s ecosystem cools alongside the halving event, CryptoQuant’s CEO Ki Young Ju remarked on the mining sector’s current conditions, noting significant pressure on inefficient miners due to declining hash prices since Bitcoin’s fourth halving in April.
Economist and mining expert Jan Wuestenfeld also highlighted concerns, suggesting that the capitulation of small miners often foreshadows a bullish market sentiment.