Bitcoin Runes have accumulated more than 2,500 Bitcoin (BTC) in transaction fees in under two months, indicating the rise of Bitcoin-native decentralized finance (DeFi).
Since its launch, Runes, a new protocol for creating fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, has generated a total of 2,513 Bitcoin (BTC) in fees, equivalent to over $163 million, as reported by Dune data.
This achievement comes after the unveiling of the Runes protocol, which took place during the 2024 Bitcoin halving in April. This demonstrates the ongoing interest in the potential of Bitcoin-native DeFi, also known as BTCFi.
The additional transaction fees generated by protocols like Runes could provide significant support to Bitcoin miners post-halving, following the reduction of Bitcoin block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
In terms of transaction volume, Runes-related transactions made up 12.2%, while BRC-20 transactions represented 5%, and Ordinals inscriptions accounted for 0.6% of total transactions on the Bitcoin network. The majority, 82%, of transactions were regular BTC transactions as of June 17, according to Dune data.
On a daily basis, there were 9,567 Runes-related transactions, 3,938 BRC-20 transactions, and 474 Ordinals-related transactions. Regular Bitcoin transactions stood at 64,620.
Since their launch in April 2024, Runes have surpassed BRC-20 tokens in terms of on-chain activity.
The increase in transaction fees from Bitcoin Runes is providing support for Bitcoin miners, according to Nazar Khan, co-founder and chief operating officer of TeraWulf. Khan explained in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph that as the remainder of the Bitcoin block reward is a fixed issuance, transaction fees serve as the “wild card” for Bitcoin miners.