In the Rune War, which infrastructures are the biggest winners?

Author: flowie, ChainCatcher

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

On April 20, the day of Bitcoin halving, Runes nearly caused a congestion in the Bitcoin network with a single move, pushing Bitcoin network transaction fees to nearly $300 at one point.

This allowed miners, who were originally facing pressure from the halving, to earn huge revenues that day. According to Glassnode data, on the day of the halving, Bitcoin miners' income reached $106.7 million, a record high, with over 75% coming from network transaction fees.

However, the hot start of Runes left investors in the crypto community with mixed feelings. On one hand, Runes indeed has the potential to continue the development trend of Ordinals, creating new wealth opportunities for participants. On the other hand, the intense competition at the start, even more so than Ordinals, has left many early users burdened with excessively high costs for new investments, leading to potential losses on paper.

Currently, the infrastructure providing Runes for new investments and trading within the Runes ecosystem may be the biggest winners. Especially players like OKX and UniSat, who were early participants in the Bitcoin ecosystem construction, are once again reaping the new round of dividends from the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Battle of Runes: More Intense than Ordinals?

In March 2023, anonymous developer domo launched the experimental standard protocol BRC20 and the ORDI token, but it wasn't until two months later that BRC20 tokens experienced their first explosion.

On May 8, 2023, the Bitcoin network halted block production for one hour due to congestion, with on-chain transaction gas fees peaking at $30. The leading BRC20 token ORDI also broke through $10 in early May, with a market cap exceeding $200 million.

More than a year after the first explosion of BRC20, Runes, proposed as an alternative to BRC20 by Ordinals founder Casey, triggered severe congestion in the Bitcoin network upon its launch, due to long-prepared forces. On-chain transaction gas fees once approached $300, ten times higher than the peak trading period of BRC20.

Although Runes has only officially started new investments for 4 days, data from the OKX Web3 Runes section shows that over 8,000 Runes have been issued, and based on 24-hour trading volume, there are already 38 relatively popular Runes.

Among them, on April 24, the Rune with the highest 24-hour trading volume was Z•Z•Z•Z•Z•FEHU•Z•Z•Z•Z•Z, with a market cap exceeding $2 billion. The second highest trading volume was for RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE, with a market cap exceeding $210 million, surpassing the $200 million market cap of ORDI after its initial surge last May.

The third highest trading volume was for the Satoshi Nakamoto Rune, SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO, which was once the most held and traded Rune during the early investment phase, currently with a market cap exceeding $60 million.

In terms of the number of holders, the four Runes with the most holders are currently RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE, SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO, Z•Z•Z•Z•Z•FEHU•Z•Z•Z•Z•Z, and BITCOIN•PEPE•MATRIX, all surpassing 16,000 holders.

Although the initial heat of Runes, in terms of Bitcoin transaction network fees and popular Rune market caps, exceeds that of the first phase explosion of BRC20.

However, for users in the crypto community, Runes seem to cool down more quickly, as there is not much difference in narrative and new investment gameplay compared to BRC20. Data from the OKX Web3 Runes section shows that nearly 90% of the floor prices of the 38 popular Runes have dropped in the past 24 hours.

The current profit effect of Runes also seems to be less than that of BRC20. When BRC20 launched, the concept was so new that there were not many participants, allowing many players to acquire a large number of tokens at low prices, achieving returns of hundreds or thousands of times.

In contrast, Runes faced high costs for new investments due to excessive competition and soaring gas fees. According to a poll from Twitter user @Fuckxegg, the main beneficiaries currently are the holders of pre-Rune NFTs, who gain profits through airdrops from project parties. The vast majority of users participating in new investments may face losses.

Intense Competition in Runes Infrastructure: Which Players Dominated Trading?

Whether it's the explosion of BRC20 or Runes, selling shovels is a more reliable way to reap the benefits of the Bitcoin ecosystem than participating in gold mining.

In the Runes ecosystem, the infrastructure providing new investments and trading for Runes is also the most competitive track. Before Runes launched, at least 20 trading platforms had announced support for Runes new investments and trading.

One category includes trading markets represented by OKX, UniSat, and Magic Eden, while another includes Bitcoin ecosystem wallets, minting, and analysis tools represented by Xverse, Geniidata, and Runealpha; there are also Launch or MintPads platforms like Ordinalsbot and Runespad.

However, in reality, after Runes launched, not many platforms were able to quickly offer Runes new investments and trading. From the situation on the day of the halving, most participants still chose to trade on platforms like OKX, UniSat, Geniidata, and Runealpha, which had launched Runes sections earlier.

The vast majority of Runes new investment and trading platforms support the OKX Web3 wallet. As one of the earliest players to lay out the Bitcoin ecosystem, the OKX Web3 wallet remains an important leader in this wave of Runes market.

This is thanks to OKX's sensitivity in capturing market hotspots. After the concept of Runes was first proposed by Ordinals founder Casey in September 2023, the OKX Web3 wallet team quickly got involved.

According to Jason Wang, head of the OKX Web3 wallet, they have been researching and preparing for Runes for over six months.

As a result, the development and launch of Runes went very smoothly, with significant improvements in security and service stability. Before Runes launched, the pre-Rune NFT projects had already gained popularity, and the OKX market quickly responded, becoming an important trading market for pre-Rune NFT projects.

In addition to being very sensitive to market hotspots, OKX also focuses on user experience. Before the launch of Runes, the OKX community published multiple educational articles and videos about Runes, as well as detailed tutorials for new investments, allowing users to prepare in advance.

After the first Rune was born, OKX promptly launched the Runes new investment and trading platform, providing users with minting and trading analysis information, and there were no bugs after the launch, with operations running very smoothly.

It is worth mentioning that due to the characteristics of Runes, the new investment process generally requires participants to split UTXOs in advance for higher efficiency. However, this process involves too many technical concepts, making it difficult for many non-technical users to get started. OKX provided an automatic UTXO splitting function, lowering the participation threshold for users.

Therefore, Runes participants can complete the entire process—from pre-Rune NFTs to new investments and secondary trading—one-stop in the OKX Web3 wallet.

Bitcoin Ecosystem Dividend Explosion: OKX May Be the Biggest Winner

In the fiercely contested wallet space, the OKX Web3 wallet has quickly seized the Bitcoin ecosystem, achieving a rapid turnaround.

After the first round of BRC20 explosion in May last year, the infrastructure supporting BRC20 minting and trading was very scarce, with a high participation threshold for users. The OKX Web3 wallet quickly announced its integration with the Ordinals market, allowing users to transfer, trade, and mint BRC-20 and BTC NFTs in a one-stop manner, participating in the Bitcoin ecosystem with a lower threshold.

By capturing user demand, the market share of the OKX Web3 wallet rapidly expanded. According to Dune panel data, since the OKX Web3 wallet NFT platform integrated with the Ordinals market last May, its market share in the Ordinals market has continuously risen from an initial 0.3%.

Following the second explosion of the Bitcoin ecosystem in November last year, the market share of OKX's Ordinals market has mostly maintained above 80%, with the market share of daily trading on OKX exceeding 90% on November 9, almost monopolizing the Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem.

OKX quickly opened up a second growth curve through the Web3 wallet and the Bitcoin ecosystem. This has also stimulated many CEXs to compete in the Web3 wallet and Bitcoin ecosystem.

In November last year, Binance and Bitget successively announced the integration of Web3 wallets; gate.io also released its self-developed Web3 wallet.

However, due to OKX's several months of first-mover advantage, subsequent CEXs entering the market have slightly weaker Web3 wallet functionalities and slower progress. In the Bitcoin ecosystem, almost only the OKX Web3 wallet continues to closely follow the market and quickly meet user needs.

After Ordinals, a large number of derivative protocols also emerged in the Bitcoin ecosystem. OKX is also involved in research and providing users with the most valuable trading markets in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Currently, the OKX Web3 wallet supports the Ordinals, Atomicals, and the recently popular Runes market, making it the main platform for users to participate in minting or trading during each rotation of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

At present, the OKX Web3 wallet has successfully accumulated a large number of on-chain users through the Bitcoin ecosystem. It is expected that in this bull market, the Bitcoin ecosystem, as one of the most mainstream narratives, will continue to bring traffic dividends to OKX.

In the long run, the successful experience of the OKX Web3 wallet in the Bitcoin ecosystem may provide a reference or even replicable methodology for OKX in tackling other important narratives in the future.