The arrival of the Runes protocol kept the income of Bitcoin miners high, despite the halving.
The halving, an event scheduled on the Bitcoin blockchain to occur approximately every 4 years, halves the network's block reward. Due to this, the halving has a direct impact on the income of the miners who operate on this blockchain.
Historically, every time a new halving occurs, miners' income is reduced by 50%, forcing those less profitable to leave the network. However, this year, Bitcoin miners were not significantly affected by the new halving, which took place on April 20, at block height #840.000 of the network.
On the contrary, according to data from The Block Research platform, Bitcoin miners experienced their second best month in April, after recording earnings of $1.790 billion.
According to the data, the total earnings of Bitcoin miners in April saw a 123% year-on-year increase, compared to April 2023 data.
Source: The Block Research
The main reason behind the high profits of miners was the launch of the fungible token protocol, Runes, on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Runes raised Bitcoin miners' income from commission fees
The Runes protocol, designed by the same Ordinals developer, Casey Rodarmor, was activated on the same day as the halving and, thanks to the massive activity it sparked on the network, miners' income was not affected by the halving.
In fact, according to the platform's data, on April 20, the day of the fourth halving, Bitcoin miners generated profits of $106,7 million. Most of this income, more than 75%, came from commission fees of the transactions that were being processed in the blockchain.
Regarding this massive activity, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju commented that projects like Runes, in addition to increasing the utility and use cases of Bitcoin, were also significantly changing the income streams of miners. He noted that currently, transaction commission fees in Bitcoin now account for more than 7% of miners' total revenue. This marks an important milestone, compared to 1% two years ago, he commented.
Since halving day, the total revenue of blockchain miners has been declining. However, the strong activity generated by this fungible token protocol was a significant relief for the miners operating in this blockchain, whose income comes mainly from the rewards of the new blocks.
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