Runes launched on April 20, 2024 — the exact moment of Bitcoin’s fourth halving. The timing was deliberate. Casey Rodarmor, the same developer behind Ordinals, had designed Runes as a more efficient alternative to BRC-20 for fungible token issuance on Bitcoin. The protocol used Bitcoin’s UTXO model natively instead of the JSON-based hack that BRC-20 relied on. On block 840,000, the first Runes were etched onto Bitcoin.
The launch was chaotic. Block 840,000 saw the highest-ever transaction fees in Bitcoin history as users scrambled to etch “rare” early runes. The first notable launch, DOG·GO·TO·THE·MOON, became an instant meme — a runes-native memecoin that ran from zero to hundreds of millions in market cap within days. RSIC, a Runes Incentive Chip project tied to a separate Ordinals collection, airdropped DOG to its holders and created the defining moment of early Runes culture.
Runes succeeded and failed simultaneously. It succeeded as a protocol: millions of runes were etched, DEX support appeared within weeks, and major Bitcoin wallets added native runes support. It failed as a sustainable category: after the initial mania, most runes crashed hard, trading volume collapsed, and the excitement moved elsewhere. By late 2024, most early runes projects were sub-10% of their peak prices.
The broader significance of Runes is that it finalized the idea that Bitcoin could host diverse token ecosystems. Between Ordinals (NFTs), BRC-20 (text-based tokens), and Runes (native fungibles), Bitcoin now has multiple competing standards for non-BTC assets. Maxis still hate it. Developers see opportunity. And the market, as always, decides through volume. Runes’ initial mania is over, but the protocol survives and continues to host new launches. The door to fungible tokens on Bitcoin stayed open.
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