Top Prominent Runes Protocol Tokens Post Bitcoin Halving

The Runes Protocol has been officially deployed and is gaining significant attention from the community following the fourth Bitcoin Halving event. The introduction of Runes has seen Bitcoin network activity surge to over 600 thousand transactions per day. This article will summarize the most notable Runes Protocol projects currently.

Top Prominent Runes Protocol Tokens Post Bitcoin Halving

What is Runes Protocol?

Runes Protocol is a protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, developed in September 2023 by Casey Rodarmor.

Currently, BRC-20 is the token standard used on Bitcoin. However, it has caused issues with creating excess "junk" UTXOs. These UTXOs can congest the network and diminish user experience.

Runes stores data directly in UTXOs, allowing each UTXO to hold multiple tokens of varying amounts to prevent network congestion and facilitate easier token transactions on Bitcoin.

Why is Runes Protocol FOMO after Bitcoin Halving?

According to Glassnode, on April 20, minting activities increased miner revenue to $106.7 million, with 75.4% coming from network transaction fees. This demonstrates Runes Protocol's appeal post Bitcoin Halving.

Percentage statistics of miner revenue from transaction fees (orange) and Bitcoin price (black). Source: Glassnode (20/04/2024)

This FOMO can be explained by:

• Founder's Influence:

Both Runes Protocol and Ordinals were created by Casey Rodarmor. Ordinals is a new protocol allowing users to directly create NFTs on the Bitcoin network. This protocol truly made waves in 2023.

Much of the hype around Runes comes from Casey Rodarmor, the founder, who is keen on expanding application capabilities on the Bitcoin network. Users anticipate a boom similar to what Ordinals Protocol achieved in 2023.

• Next Wave on Bitcoin:

Runes Protocol is introducing technological innovations that are believed to bring the next wave to the Bitcoin network.

• BTCFi Becoming Reality with Runes Protocol

Prior to Runes, there were various token standards on Bitcoin like BRC20, CBRC-20, ARC-20, BRC-420, etc., without a specific standard. Runes Protocol aims to develop BTCFi focused around a unique token standard similar to Ethereum's ERC-20.

• Large User Base Available

Runestone - a collection of Bitcoin NFTs - airdropped 3 Runes Tokens to users who owned three or more inscriptions in their Bitcoin wallets. With a market cap of approximately $270 million at the time of writing, Runestone is attracting significant attention.

However, Runestone's price dropped by over 60% on the morning of April 22 following the end of the snapshot period.

Top Standout Runes Projects

Runes is now present on OKX's Web3 marketplace and several other CEX platforms. The following Runes projects are ranked based on trading volume and market capitalization on OKX's Web3 Marketplace.

Tokens Ranked by Volume on OKX Web3 Marketplace. Source: OKX (20/04/2024)

1. RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE

RuneCoins launched on January 23, 2024, is one of the OG projects in the Runes ecosystem.

RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE, part of the Runescoin project, currently has a trading volume of 27.37 BTC (approximately $1.8 million), the largest among Runes projects.

RSIC has a total supply of 21,000,000,000 and is currently trading on the OKX Marketplace at around 20 sats/RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE with 17,331 investors.

RunesCoin has also announced an airdrop of 21,000 inscriptions to the Ordinals community. Holders of RSIC inscriptions before block 840,000 will receive RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE and can participate in airdrop season 2.

1. SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO

With a daily trading volume of 14.6021 BTC, SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO is trading at 7.11 sats, pushing its market capitalization to 1,566.12 BTC (about $89 million).

SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO has a total supply of 21,000,000, with 20% of the total supply held by the wallet bc1p8x***yuum.

1. WANKO•MANKO•RUNES

This memecoin project created on the Runes protocol based on Casey Rodarmor's story.

WANKO•MANKO•RUNES will conclude minting at block 840,094 or 1 billion tokens minted, depending on which condition occurs first. Currently, minting has been temporarily suspended with a total supply of 75,250,000.

WANKO•MANKO•RUNES is currently trading with a volume of 8.7 BTC in the last 24 hours and a market cap of 549 BTC (approximately $36.31 million).

1. ORDINALS•ARE•DEAD

This meme coin on Rune was developed by Ordinals' developers and the issuer of the Runestone project - LeonidasNFT tweeted about ORDINALS•ARE•DEAD.

ORDINALS•ARE•DEAD is currently trading at 15.5 sats with a market cap of 60 BTC (about $4 million) and a 24-hour trading volume of 2.68 BTC.

1. THE•TICKER•IS•ELSA

Elsa is a meme token aiming to become an iconic meme on Bitcoin.

With a total supply of 1 billion Runes and 0% Premine, THE•TICKER•IS•ELSA currently has a market cap of approximately 80.2 BTC (about $5.28 million) with a 24-hour trading volume of around 2.1 BTC.

1. ANARCHO•CATBUS

ANARCHO•CATBUS is a potential Runes token featured on Casey Rodarmor's X profile - Founder of Ordinals and Runes Protocol.

This is a promising Runes token mentioned on Casey's X, but with a market cap of 35.76 BTC (approximately $2.4 million), it is relatively small compared to RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE or SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO.