BITCOIN

Communities are eager to mint meme coins, with Bitcoin transaction fees far exceeding block rewards on the chain.

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Communities are eager to mint meme coins, with Bitcoin transaction fees far exceeding block rewards on the chain.

With the official launch of the homogenous token protocol Runes following the Bitcoin halving, the crypto community is rushing to mint tokens. The associated costs of Runes alone have reached 312 BTC, with on-chain priority transaction fees surpassing $200 at one point.

Community Goes Crazy for Rune Tokens, Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar Past 200 U.S. Dollars

On April 20th, Taiwan time, when the Bitcoin block height reached 840,000, it triggered the fourth block reward halving, reducing the reward from the original 6.25 coins to 3.125 coins.

According to the mempool.space block explorer data, besides being the first block after the halving, block 840,000 generated a transaction fee of 37.67 BTC, breaking the historical record.

The on-chain priority transaction fee even reached 2,000 satoshis/byte, exceeding 200 U.S. dollars.

This surge is attributed to the Rune protocol going live after the halving, leading to a frenzy in the community to mint Rune tokens.

Aside from the inscription, how is the Rune protocol driving market speculation again?

Origin of the Rune Protocol Runes

Developer Casey Rodarmor introduced the Ordinals protocol in 2022, initiating the Bitcoin NFT narrative. However, the subsequent BRC-20 caused congestion on the Bitcoin network, to the extent that Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr threatened to ban BRC-20 and Ordinals protocols; Casey also expressed his rejection of BRC-20 multiple times.

Therefore, in September of last year, Casey announced the redevelopment of the Rune protocol Runes, attempting to serve as an alternative to BRC-20, ARC-20, and Stamps.

Runes has been closely watched by the community even before the halving, being considered akin to the NFT craze during the 2021 bull market. Recently, the Franklin Fund team also wrote a special report on Runes, believing it will become the true homogenized token standard of Bitcoin, and its potential may be significant given Bitcoin's market value.

Franklin Rune Report: Rune Issuance Will Become the Homogenized Token Standard of Bitcoin

According to the official websites such as Runebtc and Runealpha, many Runes projects have already completed all minting, with projects named after Satoshi Nakamoto having over fifteen thousand wallets holding them.