Bitcoin Achieves 1.6M Confirmed Daily Transactions
On April 23, the highest number of confirmed payments was recorded, with over 1.6 million distinct transactions in just three days.
The introduction of Bitcoin Runes significantly impacted the surge in total transactions across the Bitcoin network. This uptick in transaction activity coincided with a rising trend in Bitcoin's use for everyday transactions, leading to the highest number of confirmed payments recorded on April 23.
Just three days into the new halving cycle starting on April 20, the Bitcoin network facilitated over 1.6 million distinct transactions between senders and recipients. A direct correlation was observed between the debut of Bitcoin Runes, an alternative protocol alongside Bitcoin Ordinals, and the BRC-20 protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain, and the notable increase in daily Bitcoin transactions, as evidenced by data from Blockchain.com and Glassnode.
The total number of confirmed payments per day. (Source: Blockchain.com)
Dune Analytics data revealed that Runes accounted for 81.3% of all Bitcoin transactions on April 23. However, Bitcoin (BTC) gradually regained the majority share of transactions, representing 77.8% of the total as of April 29, with Runes contributing 18.8%. The remaining transactions comprised ordinals (1.2%) and BRC-20 (2.3%) transactions.
Share of Bitcoin transactions by type. (Source: Dune Analytics)
The surge in Bitcoin Runes transactions has notably benefited the mining sector. Major mining companies like Stronghold Digital Mining and Marathon, operating in the United States, highlighted the positive impact of Runes on both financial and operational aspects in discussions with Cointelegraph. Rune transactions have contributed over 1,200 BTC in transaction fees to miners since the Bitcoin halving event.
Although the initial buzz surrounding Runes has subsided, decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Ignas, writing in an April 17 post on X, sees it as a substantial market opportunity. Runes and BRC-20 tokens are emerging as new fungible token standards aimed at enhancing Bitcoin's utility within the evolving paradigm of Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi.
