Bitcoin
Bitcoin Runes records plummeting revenue for miners
The Bitcoin network experienced a dramatic 99% reduction in daily Rune engravings, with just 157 Runes recorded on Monday, down from a peak of 14,700 in late April, according to Dune Analysis data.
This decline in rune engravings, a fungible token protocol, has significantly reduced transaction fee income for Bitcoin miners.
On April 26, a record 23,061 runes were engraved, but the recent drop has seen engraving transaction fees drop to just $3,835 on Monday.
Following its introduction on April 20, the Runes protocol initially boosted miners’ earnings by generating substantial transaction fees, offsetting income losses following the fourth Bitcoin halving event.
The halving, which coincided with the launch of Runes, reduced the block subsidy to 3,125 BTC, but the increase in Runes transaction volume helped maintain the miner’s revenue.
To date, more than 91,200 runes have been recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Despite the recent crisis, Runas transactions dominated Bitcoin network activity.
The protocol, introduced by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor, aims to create fungible tokens using block space more efficiently than BRC-20s and aligns with Bitcoin’s unspent transaction output (UTXO) model.
Some core Bitcoin developers have criticized the Runes protocol, suggesting that it takes advantage of vulnerabilities in the Bitcoin network.