Ahead of the Bitcoin halving, the two largest BRC-20 tokens, ORDI and SATS, experienced significant declines of over 40% on the weekly chart. Traders are now shifting their attention to Bitcoin Runes, a new token standard on Bitcoin that simplifies the creation of fungible tokens.
According to CoinMarketCap data, ORDI fell by over 42% and SATS fell by over 45% over the week. Additionally, BRC-20 token sales have been declining, with PUPS BRC-20 sales dropping by 30% to $1.4 million in the past 24 hours and WZRD BRC-20 sales falling by 63% to $1.1 million, as reported by NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam.
On the other hand, the daily sales volume of RUNE BRC-20 tokens surged by over 4,500% to $251,000, indicating that traders are now focusing on Bitcoin Runes. PUPS BRC-20 and WZRD BRC-20 tokens were the second and third-largest collections by sales volume across all blockchains in the past week, accumulating $41 billion and $16.3 million in sales volume respectively, according to CryptoSlam.
The increased interest in Bitcoin Runes can be attributed to its upcoming launch, which will coincide with the Bitcoin halving this week. However, the real market opportunity for Runes may only arise several months after the initial wave of investor hype subsides, according to decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Ignas.
Ignas believes that Rune prices could potentially face a significant decline after the halving, as they do not immediately enhance the trading experience of BRC-20 tokens and smaller traders may be unable to afford the rising Bitcoin transaction fees. Furthermore, the researcher expects a multitude of Runes to be launched on the market, diluting trader attention and capital inflows.
Despite these challenges, Ignas remains optimistic about Runes in the long term, as they could progressively gain more functionality. The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is planning to integrate Runes, allowing ICP smart contracts to interact directly with Runes and BRC-20 tokens on Bitcoin’s base layer, thereby unlocking more possibilities for holders. This integration is part of the BTCFi paradigm, which aims to create more utility around BTC and Bitcoin-native assets.
It is important to note that this article does not provide investment advice or recommendations, and readers should conduct their own research before making any investment or trading decisions.