Bitcoin Runes: Analyzing the shift in network activity and fees

• Runes has continued to dominate Bitcoin transactions.
• The fees on the Bitcoin network have dropped in the last few days.

After the excitement around ordinals, Bitcoin [BTC] runes has become the biggest trend on the network.

Analysis showed that runes have significantly contributed to the number of transactions on the network over the past few months. Additionally, it has had a notable impact on transaction fees.

Bitcoin runes dominate transactions

An analysis of Bitcoin runes transactions on the BTC network showed that they started making a positive impact around April. According to Dune Analytics, the number of runes transactions surged to over 753,000 sometime in April. 

For context, the BTC transactions on that same day was around 171,000. Since then, only BTC itself has seen more transactions.

Further analysis showed that the spike meant that runes were responsible for 81.3% of the transactions on the network at its peak. 

Source: Dune Analytics

As of this writing, the number of runes transactions was 336,305, accounting for 44.3% of the total transactions.

In contrast, the BTC transaction number was 359,563, making up 47.3% of the network’s transactions. This demonstrates the dominance of runes and its significant impact on transaction fees.

Bitcoin runes’ impact on fees

An analysis of the transaction fees on Dune Analytics showed that Bitcoin runes significantly impacted fees in its early days.

However, this impact has waned over the last few months. The chart indicated that back in April, runes accounted for around 60% to 70% of transaction fees on the network. By the end of April, this percentage had declined to around 14%.

Source: DuneAnalytics

In May, the percentage of transaction fees attributed to Bitcoin runes rose, reaching around 26%.

However, it has struggled since then, and as of this writing, the percentage of transaction fees is around 17%. This means that runes contributed about 9 BTC, equivalent to approximately $630,000.

In contrast, BTC transactions contributed about 56 BTC, worth around $4 million.

This indicates that although runes continue to see a decent volume of transactions, its impact on transaction fees has waned.

Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price Prediction 2024-25

Analyzing the network fees

An analysis of Bitcoin fees on Crypto Fees showed that the fee trend has been relatively flat for a while, ranging between $2 million and $4 million.

However, there was a significant spike on 7th June, with fees rising to over $22 million before declining the next day. As of this writing, the fees are around $5 million.