With the Bitcoin halving only hours away, the race is on to mint the first tokens on the new Bitcoin Runes protocol set to launch alongside the quadrennial event.

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.

“Collectors and degens love low numbers,” pseudonymous NFT historian Leonidas told Decrypt. “With inscriptions, some of the most valuable collections were because they had low numbers.”

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Bitcoin Runes Launch at the Halving: Here's Everything You Need to Know

Bitcoin is front and center again, and orange coin lovers everywhere have plenty to be excited about: new all-time high prices, the upcoming halving, rising demand for Ordinals—and soon, something totally new called Runes. And while Runes won’t hit Bitcoin until the halving—currently set for April 19 as of this writing—when the supply of newly minted BTC is once again cut in half by slashing miner rewards, the project is already getting a lot of hype and attention. Here’s what you need to know....

As Leonidas explained, a sub-10,000 inscription number intuitively communicates that an Ordinals project was early to the protocol. Given the emphasis on provenance around the blockchain and the fact that many early NFT and Ordinals projects have benefited from being early, creators and traders alike see an opportunity to be among the first on this anticipated new token protocol.

Runes is a new protocol from the creator of Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor. Ordinals made it possible to create NFT-like “inscriptions” on the Bitcoin network, and the BRC-20 standard built on top of that enabled fungible tokens. Runes is seen by many Bitcoiners is the next step forward for tokens on Bitcoin.

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How to Mint Runes at the Bitcoin Halving Without Getting Rekt

Merry Bitcoin Halving Eve! Hoping to unwrap a Rune? The same developer that brought you Bitcoin Ordinals will soon debut a new protocol, called Runes, which plans to rival the BRC-20 token standard. Since its announcement, the project seen huge hype with tons of projects gearing up for the Runes launch—which aligns with the Bitcoin halving. Most notably, meme coin PUPS skyrocketed ahead of its launch. But the rise didn’t come without some controversy. There have been spats over the project’s cla...

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.

“Runestone will be spending over $100,000 in a single transaction to try to secure a low number for its Dog meme coin," he said.

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 [sat] is going to be to the tune of $4 to $6 million—[that's] probably the market value for that.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward