The arrival of the Bitcoin halving, which reduced the issuance of BTC by half as part of the system's monetary policy, meant a unique opportunity for thousands of traders around the world, who minted a high amount of tokens in one week. The influx of these tokens, linked to the Runes protocol, which was activated after the halving, resulted in an increase in network commissions. Data provided through the Dune forum indicates that In the days following the halving, around 48,000 new Runes inscriptions were registered, a type of fungible and non-fungible token (NFT) that has become the focus of interest of cryptocurrency traders. As a result, more than 3 million transactions to mint and exchange these tokens, which resulted in increased demand for block space in the early days after the halving. The explanation for this phenomenon lies in the fact that the token creators sought to register or register their assets in the first existing Bitcoin transaction blocks after the halving. An inscription in these blocks has the potential to increase the value of the tokens due to its rarity. With the growing adoption of these tokens during the early days, came what could be called a second wave of projects, trying to position themselves in the cryptocurrency markets. Starting on April 19, the date on which the Bitcoin halving occurred, as reported by BitcoinDynamic, the activity of Runes began to increase, mainly responsible for the high commissions of the network during the days following that scheduled event.
The activity of Runes token creators and traders increased two weeks after the halving. Source: Runes_is / Dune Between April 20 and 25, more than 10,000 Runes were registered. However, this activity increased during the last 3 days, when the network registered more than 40,000 new projects. Almost 23,000 new Runes were registered on April 26 alone.
The recent activity in the Runes markets contrasts with what the network experienced last week, when commissions reached an extraordinary figure of USD 200 for high priority transactions (confirmed in the first 10 minutes). Despite greater activity in the last 3 days, network commissions remain above USD 3.
Top Runes Tokens
Most of Runes' activity falls on a dozen tokens, which bring together more than 450,000 users. In this sense, projects such as RSIC (111 thousand holders), RUNES All of these tokens were issued after the halving.
The main Runes projects positioned according to the number of holders. Source: Luminex.io As BitcoinDynamic reported at the time, the memcoin DOG was positioned in first place on this adoption list, but in just two days it was surpassed by other projects. The demand for Runes tokens is increasing progressively.
Growth of Runes activity
An analysis of the percentage of transactions corresponding to Runes activity indicates that most of the operations executed in Bitcoin since the halving correspond to the issuance and exchange of these tokens.
Between 70% and 60% of Bitcoin transactions correspond to operations linked to Runes. Source: Kryptokorio / Dune On April 20, one day after the halving, more than 73% of the transactions recorded in Bitcoin corresponded to Runes movements. That mark was surpassed on April 23, when More than 80% of the executed transactions belonged to a Runes project. However, over the last 3 days, that figure fell to a range of between 30% and 48% of total Bitcoin transactions.