tl;dr
The imminent Bitcoin halving has sparked a race to mint the first tokens on the new Bitcoin Runes protocol, a fungible token platform created by Casey Rodarmor, the mind behind Ordinals. With a focus on the allure of low numbers and early participation, developers and project creators are vying to s...
The imminent Bitcoin halving has sparked a race to mint the first tokens on the new Bitcoin Runes protocol, a fungible token platform created by Casey Rodarmor, the mind behind Ordinals. With a focus on the allure of low numbers and early participation, developers and project creators are vying to secure the first token mints, with millions of dollars expected to be spent on fees. This fervor extends to projects like Runestone, which is seeking an early spot for its upcoming meme coin launch and plans to spend over $100,000 in a single transaction to secure a low Rune number. Additionally, Bitcoin mining pools are competing to obtain an "epic satoshi" in the halving block, with significant market premiums anticipated for these rare satoshis.
Runes is a new fungible token protocol on Bitcoin that will let users “etch” and mint tokens on top of the chain. It’s akin to the experimental BRC-20 standard launched last year, but is said to be more efficient—and comes from the inventor of the Ordinals protocol. In any case, as with the NFT-like Ordinals before it, project creators are keen on securing some of the earliest token mints possible.
Like first edition books, physical art, and NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Solana Monkey Business, collectors ascribe value to collectible items by their rarity or age. With developers angling to inscribe the first Runes, Leonidas expects that millions of dollars will be spent on fees trying to secure these low Rune numbers. Runestone, currently the biggest Ordinals project by market cap (and which Leonidas helped create), aims to be one of those projects to nab an early spot for its upcoming meme coin launch.
Earlier this month, Leonidas announced that holders of the 112,383 Runestone inscriptions will be airdropped a Dog meme coin after the Runes protocol launches. “Casey has created a similar mechanism with Runes where they will be numbered based on the order they were created,” he said. “It's just a number, so it’s not the end all, be all—but it is for sure cool if a project gets a low Rune number.”
In addition to battling to etch on the first Runes, Bitcoin mining pools are also trying to nab an “epic satoshi,” or a limited edition of the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin (1/100,000,000 BTC). “According to 'Ordinals theory,' the first satoshi in the halving block is called an 'epic satoshi,'" Blockspace Media co-founder Will Foxley told Decrypt. “It’s thought that an Ordinals project that can successfully purchase that satoshi and inscribe an Ordinal on it would have a significant market premium because of the underlying satoshi’s rarity.”
According to Luxor mining pool CEO Nick Hansen, it's not just about grabbing the uncommon or epic sat, but the potential windfall that comes with it. “For reference, an uncommon sat will go for $200 to $500 depending on market variations; rare sats we've seen go for up to three Bitcoin ($193,242),” Hansen told Decrypt. “But it is a logarithmic scale. We think most likely the epic is going to be to the tune of $4 to $6 million—probably the market value for that.”
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