Key Points
- Bitcoin Runes recorded 15.6 million transactions within four months of launch.
- Bitcoin protocol has reclaimed 90% of its blockchain dominance.
Bitcoin Runes, a newcomer to the NFT market, has made a significant impact by recording 15.6 million transactions within its first four months.
This considerable activity has shifted the traditionally Ethereum-dominated NFT landscape, showcasing Bitcoin’s potential beyond being a mere store of value.
Bitcoin Runes and Network Congestion
During the initial two months, Bitcoin Runes experienced high activity levels, often surpassing 300,000 transactions daily, according to data from Dune Analytics.
This surge led to Runes commanding a large portion of Bitcoin’s network resources, outdoing the ordinals and BRC-20 protocol.
At its zenith, Bitcoin Runes consumed 81.3% of Bitcoin’s network bandwidth, hinting at significant network capacity usage.
This high bandwidth consumption could have affected Bitcoin’s transaction throughput and the overall user experience on the network.
Consequently, Bitcoin blockchain’s mean transaction fee saw a significant increase in April, possibly leading to network congestion and higher fees for Bitcoin users.
Bitcoin Reclaims Dominance
Over time, Bitcoin Runes experienced a decrease in transaction volume due to various factors such as increased competition from other protocols or Bitcoin reclaiming network dominance.
Bitcoin Runes was launched as a more efficient alternative to Bitcoin Ordinals and a competitor to BRC-20, quickly gaining investor favor.
Despite surpassing BRC-20 in daily transaction volume consistently over the past four months, daily Runes transactions have declined in the last two months, averaging around 50,000 transactions per day.
This decrease occurred as Bitcoin once again dominated network usage, accounting for approximately 90% of the total activity.
The shift back to Bitcoin dominance underscores the network’s ability to reclaim its position as the leading platform for transaction activity, overshadowing other applications that had previously gained traction.
While this dominance underscores Bitcoin’s strong position in transaction volume, its price performance will ultimately depend on favorable market conditions and investor sentiment.
