The homogeneous token protocol Runes, which synchronously launched with BTC halving, has sparked a frenzy of rune engraving, causing a surge in Bitcoin transaction fees. Miners have become the biggest winners, with Bitcoin miners earning $107 million yesterday, reaching a new historical high.
Bitcoin’s fourth halving was officially completed on Saturday, April 20, Taiwan time, reducing the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Initially, there were concerns that miners’ earnings would be halved after the halving, and they may sell off BTC to maintain their operational costs. However, Julio Moreno, Director of Research at CryptoQuant, shared data showing that Bitcoin miners earned $107 million yesterday, setting a new record high and significantly surpassing the previous single-day record of $77 million set in April 2021.
We know that Bitcoin miners’ earnings consist of block rewards and transaction fees. Of the record-breaking $107 million in revenue, the largest proportion comes from transaction fees, accounting for 75% ($80.5 million), while the remaining $26.2 million is from block rewards, accounting for only about 24.6%.
Baylor Landry, an executive at SC&P, also stated that before the fourth halving, the total revenue from the last 77 blocks was only $35 million, but after the fourth halving, the first 77 blocks generated a total of $75 million in miner revenue. It seems that the halving is more like doubling. But can this situation continue?
The surge in Bitcoin transaction fees after the halving is mainly due to the synchronous launch of the Bitcoin homogeneous token protocol Runes. After the protocol went live, users rushed to mint rune tokens, causing a surge in Bitcoin transaction fees. At one point, high priority fees even exceeded 2,200 Sat (about $200).
Data from Dune analytics shows that after the halving, transactions related to the Runes protocol accounted for as high as 57.7% of overall Bitcoin transactions.
However, the Bitcoin transaction fees have significantly dropped at present. According to mempool data:
– Current no priority fee is 14 Sat ($1.29) per byte.
– Low priority fee is 76 Sat ($6.98) per byte.
– Medium priority fee is 84 Sat ($7.71) per byte.
– High priority fee is 93 Sat ($8.54) per byte.
Unless the popularity of Runes continues, it can be reasonably assumed that miner earnings will return to normal values, potentially even lower than before the halving if the coin price does not significantly increase.
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– After Bitcoin halving: How will BTC NFT ecosystem be affected?
– PlanB’s firm statement: The raging bull market is not over, BTC will rise above $300,000 after halving.