The Runes protocol launch is causing Bitcoin (BTC) daily fees to soar well beyond a prior all-time high (ATH), according to the crypto analytics firm IntoTheBlock.
Lucas Outumuro, IntoTheBlock’s head of research, says on the social media platform X that Bitcoin transaction fees soared to $80 million on April 20th, 4x the prior ATH from more than six years ago.
Runes is a new protocol developed by Casey Rodarmor, who also developed Ordinals. The project aims to make creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin more efficient.
Says Outumuro,
“The launch of Runes on Bitcoin has been absolutely insane…
Daily fees set an all-time high of over $80 million…
The $80 million in daily fees is approximately 4x larger than the previous ATH set in December 2017. The average BTC transaction fee was a whopping $128, dwarfing the $30 peak reached during the first Ordinals frenzy.”
Outumuro says the launch of Runes after Bitcoin’s April 19th halving, when miners’ rewards were cut in half, has boosted miners’ rewards via the skyrocketing transaction fees.
“Here’s one of the craziest stats: miners are now earning more than before the halving. 24 hours after the halving, inflationary rewards have dropped by 50%, but transaction fees spiked 1,200% due to Runes. Miners made a record $100 million-plus in revenue on April 20th.”
Outumuro also notices that a certain group of market participants was behind the surge in Runes-related transactions.
“New addresses on Bitcoin reach a two-year low. This suggests most of the Runes-related activity is coming from crypto degens. It will likely take some time until retail begins participating.”
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