The introduction of the Runes token standard on Bitcoin has created a highly profitable ViaBTC Block. Runes are revolutionary tokens designed to replace the less efficient Bitcoin Ordinals.
The recent Bitcoin halving event, which occurred on Friday, resulted in users paying $2.5 million in transaction fees to mint new meme coins using the new Bitcoin Runes protocol. This record-breaking payout was made possible by users paying 37.7 BTC to have their transactions included in the halving block.
The Bitcoin halving reduced the amount of new Bitcoin awarded as block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. However, block 840,000, which marked the beginning of the halving process, turned out to be the most profitable block in Bitcoin’s history. It contributed a total of 40.751 BTC to ViaBTC, the fortunate mining pool.
The launch of the Runes protocol, which enables the minting of fungible Bitcoin tokens, was created by Casey Rodamor, the inventor of Ordinals. The launch of Runes coincided with the Bitcoin halving event on Friday. Runes such as Satoshi.Nakamoto, RSIC, and Wanko Manko were issued on block 840,000 during the halving.
One user commented, “My play on RUNES is simple. They will outperform almost anything else in this bull market. I believe RSIC is the highest quality of RUNE for many reasons. So yes I stack RUNES. But when I do, I stack exclusively RSIC.”
Transaction fees accounted for more than 90% of ViaBTC’s mining reward for block 840,000, thanks to the surge in activity driven by the issuance of Runes. Throughout the day, transaction fees made up 75% of all miners’ incentives. However, the fee hike quickly subsided after the Bitcoin halving.
Gas fees, which were around 0.0036 BTC or approximately $240 immediately after the halving event, fell to around $34 or even lower. Despite this decrease, Alvin Kan, COO at Bitget Wallet, stated that the release of the Runes protocol has been a “boon for miners.”
Transaction fees have become increasingly important to miners since the halving, as they now rely on these fees and the rising price of BTC to compensate for the decrease in new Bitcoin issuance.
While Runes transactions are not the sole drivers of Bitcoin transaction fees, the growing number of non-standard transactions, which involve more than just moving regular Bitcoin between addresses, generally supports miners’ earnings.
Runes differ from the BRC-20 token standard, which is more complex and not UTXO-based. The BRC-20 token standard generates an excessive number of unnecessary UTXOs, congesting the Bitcoin network.
As previously reported, Runes aim to replace the less efficient Ordinals-based BRC-20 token standard. Runes use significantly less block space than the established BRC-20 standard, making them cheaper to issue and manage.
The halving event and the emergence of Runes have brought volatility to Bitcoin, impacting its price. However, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $66,133, showing a slight increase of 0.11% in the past day, with trading volumes reaching $24.7 billion.