Flare (flr) 
After nearly a week since the halving event, Bitcoin Runes have reached a significant milestone, sparking discussions among observers and participants about the implications of this new standard.
According to data from a Dune Analytics dashboard, the Runes protocol on Bitcoin (BTC) has generated $135 million in transaction fees on the cryptocurrency’s largest blockchain. On-chain data reveals that tokens issued under this standard have resulted in over 2,100 BTC fees within a week.
Casey Rodarmor, the creator of the Ordinals protocol, developed Bitcoin Runes to enhance the BRC-20 standard and promote decentralized finance (defi) on BTC’s network.
Runes enable users to conduct more efficient transactions and create optimized tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain by leveraging BTC’s UTXO format. Launched during the halving, the concept has become a significant source of on-chain activity for BTC.
According to Bitcoin Wallet Unisat, users have minted nearly 11,000 Runes, leading to a surge in BTC gas fees shortly after the halving. However, fees have since decreased in the days following Bitcoin’s quadrennial code adjustment, which reduced block mining rewards by 50%.
At a block height of 840,000, the introduction of Bitcoin Runes initially caused a spike in BTC transaction costs. Analysts anticipate that this effect will diminish over time. The additional load on BTC’s network was primarily due to token creation (minting), triggered by speculation around Runes.
Despite the temporary burden on block space, analysts believe that the Runes standard will attract more developers to Bitcoin, offering long-term benefits to the network.
“The adoption of Runes is expected to have a positive impact on the network in the long run. The excitement surrounding minting through airdrops will fade as the most sought-after tokens are minted post-halving,” shared Bitcoin researcher Jade ARdinals.
Runes have already gained significant traction in BTC’s on-chain activity. According to Crypto Koryo’s Dune dashboard, Runes tokens represented 45% of all Bitcoin transactions on April 25.
