Key Points
- Bitcoin’s average daily transaction fees have returned to Ethereum’s level after the Runes protocol hype subsided.
- Runes, a new fungible token standard for Bitcoin, generated over $135 million in fees for miners during its first week.
Following the decrease in the excitement surrounding the launch of the Runes protocol, the average daily transaction fees of Bitcoin have returned to the same level as that of Ethereum.
On April 24, the seven-day moving average of Bitcoin’s daily transaction fees reached an all-time high of $25.8 million, over five times the daily transaction fees generated by Ethereum. However, it fell to $4.1 million on Wednesday, which is equivalent to Ethereum’s daily transaction fee average.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Transaction Fees
Similarly, the average individual transaction fees on Bitcoin spiked to $40 on April 24, which was ten times higher than Ethereum’s. The seven-day moving average then dropped to $8.60 on Wednesday, although it was still more than double Ethereum’s average of $3.40.
After Bitcoin’s fourth halving block 840,000 generated $2.4 million in fees, exceeding the approximate $200,000 worth of block subsidy reward, Bitcoin went on a record 104-block run. Transaction fee rewards were higher than the subsidy during this run.
Impact of Runes Protocol
The Runes protocol, a new fungible token standard for Bitcoin, was launched during the halving and generated over $135 million in fees for miners in its first week. The protocol was developed by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Ordinals, and provides a more efficient solution for creating tokens on Bitcoin compared to BRC-20 tokens that use Ordinals inscriptions.
Data shows that around 65,000 Runes tokens have been minted to date, which has increased the demand for network blockspace and, subsequently, network fees. Among the tokens under the Runes standard, DOG has the highest market cap at around $350 million.
