The Runes protocol, launched alongside Bitcoin’s halving in April 2024, sparked a surge in transaction fees, peaking at $127.97 per transaction and generating over $135 million in fees within a week. By leveraging Bitcoin’s UTXO model and OP_RETURN, Runes enables efficient fungible token creation, reducing network bloat compared to BRC-20. However, the initial hype led to severe congestion, with over 237,000 pending transactions and fees soaring to 1,050 sat/vb (~$94). Despite early miner revenue boosts, Runes’ activity dropped 97.5% by May, with fees normalizing to $3.60. Sustainability remains uncertain as Bitcoin’s conservative framework limits long-term adoption. Runes’ reliance on speculative memecoin minting and lack of secondary market liquidity suggest fading relevance unless integrated with scalable DeFi solutions.