Casey Rodarmor, the founder of the Runes protocol, had previously made a bold statement that if the market value of the Runes ecosystem did not reach $1 billion within a month of its launch, he would commit ritual suicide. Now that a month has passed and the market value of the Runes ecosystem has not reached $1 billion, Casey Rodarmor has responded to this.
In parallel with Bitcoin’s fourth halving, the Runes protocol went live on the 20th and initially sparked a frenzy. This brought attention to Casey, the co-founder of the Ordinals and Runes protocols, and his previous statement in March where he made a reckless claim that he would commit ritual suicide if the market value of the Runes ecosystem did not reach $1 billion within a month of its release.
Now, one month after the mainnet launch of the Runes protocol, according to GeniiData, the total market value of the Runes ecosystem is only $935 million, and the long-term average market value of the Runes ecosystem has never exceeded $1 billion. The 9-day moving average reached a high of $998.6 million, and on the 18th, the total market value briefly exceeded $1 billion, but the daily average was $993.6 million.
Currently, the top three projects in terms of market value in the Runes ecosystem are:
– DOG・GO・TO・THE・MOON, with a market value of $256.16 million
– PUPS・WORLD・PEACE, with a market value of $158.75 million
– RSIC・GENESIS・RUNE, with a market value of $158.27 million
Regarding the failure to reach a market value of $1 billion for the Runes ecosystem, Casey jokingly stated today that although it can be expected that he himself will not actually commit suicide, making reckless claims to manipulate market sentiment, not fulfilling promises, and joking about it has also caused dissatisfaction among some members of the community.
The Runes protocol, which attracted much attention, initially sparked a frenzy upon its launch. According to Dune Analytics, in the first 10 days alone, over 85,000 tokens were issued through the protocol, generating over $3 million in transaction fees.
However, since early May, all indicators, including transaction fees, new runes, and user activity, have decreased by at least 50%. Since May 1st, only about 5,000 new runes have been created, generating less than $100,000 in transaction fees.
During its peak, Rune-related transactions accounted for 80% of the total Bitcoin transaction fees, but now it is only 20%.
Ho Chan Chung, the marketing director of CryptoQuant, previously expressed doubts about the success of Bitcoin Layer 2 projects based on OP_Return. He stated that the fundamental differences between UTXO-based blockchain networks and smart contract-based networks, as well as the narrative of Bitcoin as a digital currency, are the two major obstacles that Bitcoin Layer 2 projects need to overcome.
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– Are Bitcoin runes’ names too strange? The design of Runes goes beyond everyone’s expectations.