The strength of the Runes protocol in the Bitcoin ecosystem has been significantly reflected in Runestone.
Recently, the floor price of the former NFT king Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) once fell below 12 Ethereum (ETH). Although it is currently struggling to stand above 12 ETH, it has lost its position as the second NFT in market value.
According to data from Coingecko, Runestone’s floor price climbed to 0.065 Bitcoin (BTC), which is approximately $4,505, an increase of 33.2% within 24 hours. This jump brought Runestones market value to US$506 million, surpassing BAYCs US$411 million, becoming the second largest project in the NFT market.
Compared with the rise of BAYC, Runestones market capitalization growth can be described as a straight rise. One month ago today, Runestone, which had not yet released an airdrop, was extremely popular on the over-the-counter OTC platform Whales Market. Even though both buyers and sellers required double betting, its market value at that time had reached US$143 million, and the transaction price was around US$1,300.
Related Reading:With an OTC price of $1,300, can Runestone become the top Meme in the Bitcoin ecosystem?》
From $1,300 to $4,505, Runestone achieved a 3.5x price surge in one month. Although in a currency circle full of legends of sudden wealth, such an increase may not be surprising, but considering that the total number of Runestones is only 110,000, this increase is particularly significant. Compared with the total amount of 10,000 common NFT projects, Runestones issuance is ten times greater, and it runs on the Bitcoin network with relatively high transaction fees. Against this background, the growth of Runestones liquidity and market capitalization can be described as an elephant dancing.
Runes protocol has strong expectations
In this month, why did Runestone’s market value exceed BAYC? Perhaps the main motivation comes from the strong performance of Runes Protocol that exceeded market expectations.
It is expected that later this month, as the Bitcoin halving event approaches, the Runes protocol will be officially launched on the mainnet. As the singularity of the Big Explosion of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Caseys influence is unparalleled in the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. The Runes protocol itself has a strong consensus. The Runes protocol itself carries a strong consensus foundation. As this consensus continues to strengthen, the increase in asset value has become market consensus.
In order to prevent the first Rune from being snatched or pre-mined by VCs or project parties, Casey decided to hardcode the first 10 Runes (Rune 0 - Rune 9) into the Runes protocol, which only supports open mint, so that everyone can participate fairly in.
However, not everyone can get the first wave of crabs, and the threshold for actually participating in Runes Protocol Mint is not low. Similar to the early days of the Ordinals protocol, the Runes protocol requires users to set up a Bitcoin full node to participate in the new minting process. This is a very high threshold for most ordinary users. Therefore, for those users who want to join the Runes protocol but face high barriers to entry, investing in assets that already have a certain consensus and influence, such as Runestone, has become a cost-effective option.
Therefore, as the halving gets closer, the trading volume and price of Runes concept NFT are generally increasing. As of the time of writing, according to magicden data, four of the top ten Bitcoin NFTs by trading volume, including Runestone, are based on the Runes concept.
In fact, Runestone is not targeting BAYC
Although Runestones market value exceeds BAYC, Runestones target is not BAYC.
According to Ordinals developer Leonidas, the founder of Runestone, stated on social media that after being exchanged for tokens, Runestones goal is simple: to create the worlds top memecoin on the worlds top blockchain. Runestones MEME coin code and supply will be determined by the community, and it does not necessarily need to be related to the Runestone theme. The design concept is completely open.
“Everyone mistakenly regards Runestone as an NFT collectible, but within a month, everyone will regard Runestone as Memecoin. If the random pre-sale of Memecoin can soar to a market value of US$1 billion overnight, imagine the market value on the Bitcoin chain. What can Memecoin do? Leonidas wrote on social media.
Obviously, Runestones competitors are not NFT projects such as BAYC, but top Meme coins such as DogeCoin, Shiba Inu and PEPE.
Comparing the market caps of some of the top meme coins currently on the market - DogeCoin with a market cap of $28 billion, Shiba Inu with a market cap of $16 billion, and PEPE with a market cap of $2.9 billion - Runestones current market cap of $500 million has exceeded BAYC is the former NFT leader, but it still has some way to go to become the top Meme coin.
As for whether Runestone will be defeated after the Runes protocol is launched on the mainnet, it will take some time to verify whether Runestone will stand firm in the round-up of many Runes assets.
A new development recently announced by Leonidas is that Runestone NFT holders will have the opportunity to receive three rounds of Runes Memecoin airdrops, later this month, later this year, and when we become the worlds top Memecoin.
Interestingly, Leonidas revealed that one of the tokens will be related to “dogs” and every Runestone holder will receive an airdrop of Runes “dog coins”.
