Amid the increasing acceptance of Bitcoin in regular transactions, the Bitcoin network achieved a significant feat on April 23 by processing a record number of confirmed payments. Only three days into the new halving cycle, the network managed to handle over 1.6 million unique transactions between different parties.

An interesting connection arises when analyzing data from Blockchain.com and Glassnode: the introduction of Bitcoin Runes, a new alternative to Bitcoin Ordinals, and the BRC-20 protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain led to a notable rise in daily Bitcoin transactions.

On April 23, Runes made up an impressive 81.3% of all Bitcoin transactions, as per Dune Analytics. However, BTC eventually regained the majority share, now representing 77.8% of transactions as of April 29, with Runes contributing 18.8%. The remaining transactions were a mix of ordinals (1.2%) and BRC-20 (2.3%) transactions.

The surge in Bitcoin Runes transactions has significantly benefited the mining sector. Major mining companies like Stronghold Digital Mining and Marathon in the United States have seen a positive impact from Runes both financially and in terms of functionality. Since the Bitcoin halving, Rune transactions have generated over 1,200 BTC worth of transaction fees for miners.

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