# Bitcoin Ordinals, Runes and BRC-20 Activity

> Bitcoin ordinals inscriptions per day, Runes etchings and mints, BRC-20 operations and the fees and block space they used, read from witness and OP_RETURN data.

Markdown copy of https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-ordinals-runes-activity

**Question:** How many Ordinals inscriptions and Runes transactions happen on Bitcoin each day?

- Kind: Dashboard in Voltfin Vantage
- Topic: [Bitcoin](https://voltfincrypto.com/topics/bitcoin)
- Chains: Bitcoin
- Status: Planned. The data is not published yet, so this page states no figure; each figure will open its receipt when it is.

Ordinals inscriptions and Runes transactions are counted here for every day on Bitcoin, read from the transactions themselves: inscriptions from the envelopes in taproot witness data, Runes from runestones in OP_RETURN outputs and BRC-20 from inscriptions that carry its JSON. Each is shown with the fees it paid and the share of block space it used.

These protocols live inside ordinary Bitcoin transactions, so their activity shows up in fees, block weight and the mempool. Waves of inscriptions or rune mints have filled blocks for days at a time, which makes their share of fees and block space a useful read on what drives Bitcoin's fee market. The counts follow each protocol's published parsing rules, named beside every figure.

## Blueprint

### Last day

The last complete day's inscriptions, Runes and BRC-20 activity and their fees.

- **Inscriptions** (count): Inscriptions revealed in the last complete UTC day, counted by the Ordinals protocol's rules.
- **Runes transactions** (count): Transactions carrying a runestone in the same day: etchings, mints and transfers.
- **BRC-20 operations** (count): BRC-20 deploy, mint and transfer inscriptions in the same day.
- **Share of all fees** (%): Fees paid by inscription, runes and BRC-20 transactions as a share of all fees that day.
- **Inscriptions by content type** (count): The day's inscriptions by content type, such as text, image or JSON, from the envelope's content-type field.
- **Runestones by operation** (count): The day's runestones by operation: etchings, mints, transfers and cenotaphs.

### History

Daily activity and its share of fees and block space since inscriptions began.

- **Inscriptions to date** (count): Inscriptions revealed since the first one, counted by the protocol's rules.
- **Share of block space, 30 days** (%): The weight of inscription, runes and BRC-20 transactions as a share of all block weight over the last 30 days.
- **Activity by protocol** (count): Transactions per day by protocol over the selected period.
- **Fees paid by protocol** (BTC): Fees paid per day by each protocol's transactions over the selected period, beside all other fees.

Filters: Protocol (Ordinals inscriptions, Runes or BRC-20); Period (Last 30 days, last year or since 2023).

## How it will be measured

- Inscriptions are counted from reveal transactions whose taproot script-path witness holds an envelope (OP_FALSE OP_IF with the ord tag), following the Ordinals protocol's parsing rules.
- Runes activity is read from runestones, outputs that begin with OP_RETURN followed by OP_13, decoded into etchings, mints and transfers; malformed runestones are counted as cenotaphs.
- BRC-20 operations are inscriptions with a JSON body whose p field is brc-20, split into deploy, mint and transfer by the op field.
- Fees are each transaction's inputs minus its outputs, read with getblock verbosity 3, counted for both the commit and the reveal of an inscription; block space is their weight as a share of the day's total.

## Data it needs

- `bitcoin_inscriptions_daily` (to build): Inscriptions, rune etchings and mints, BRC-20 transfers, and the fees they paid per day.
- `bitcoin_network_daily` (to build): Blocks, hashrate implied by difficulty, difficulty, fees, transaction counts, block weight and miner revenue (subsidy plus fees) per day.
- `chain_fees_daily` (to build): Fees paid per chain per day in the native token: base fee and priority fee percentiles, total fees, and the share burned where the chain burns fees.
- Source: Taproot script-path witnesses holding an ord envelope, per reveal transaction
- Source: OP_RETURN outputs beginning with OP_13, decoded as runestones
- Source: Inscriptions with a JSON body whose p field is brc-20
- Source: Fees and weight per transaction from getblock verbosity 3, for commit and reveal transactions

## Questions

### What are Bitcoin Ordinals?

A protocol that numbers individual satoshis and lets data such as images or text be inscribed onto them in the witness of a taproot transaction. Each inscription is tied to a satoshi and moves with it, which is how Ordinals work as NFTs on Bitcoin.

### What are Bitcoin Runes?

A fungible token protocol on Bitcoin, launched at the 2024 halving block, that records etchings, mints and transfers in OP_RETURN outputs called runestones. Rune balances live in UTXOs, so tokens move with ordinary Bitcoin outputs.

### What is the difference between Runes and BRC-20?

BRC-20 tokens are inscriptions carrying JSON that indexers interpret, so each mint or transfer needs its own inscription. Runes use compact OP_RETURN data and assign balances to outputs directly, which takes less block space per operation.

### Do inscriptions raise Bitcoin fees?

They compete for the same block space as payments. When a wave of inscriptions or mints arrives, more is waiting than fits and fee rates rise for everyone. The dashboard shows their share of fees and block weight each day, so the effect can be measured.

### Why are inscriptions cheap compared with other data on Bitcoin?

Witness data weighs a quarter as much as other transaction data under SegWit, and tapscript sets no script size limit beyond the block's own weight limit. Large inscriptions therefore fit in a single transaction at the witness discount.

## Glossary

- **Inscription**: Data written into the witness of a taproot transaction and assigned, by the Ordinals protocol, to a specific satoshi.
- **Runestone**: An OP_RETURN output beginning with OP_13 that carries Runes instructions: an etching, a mint or transfers.
- **Etching**: The creation of a new rune, which sets its name, divisibility, symbol and supply terms.
- **Commit and reveal**: The two transactions behind an inscription: the commit creates a taproot output that commits to the data, and the reveal spends it, publishing the data in the witness.

## Related apps

- [Bitcoin Transaction Fees and Mempool Tracker](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-fees-mempool-tracker)
- [Bitcoin Daily Transactions, Active Addresses and Block Space](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-transactions-active-addresses)
- [NFT Sales Volume by Chain and Marketplace](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/nft-sales-volume)
- [NFT Market Report: Monthly Sales, Buyers and Chains](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/nft-market-report-monthly)
- [Bitcoin Halving Countdown and Block Reward](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-halving-countdown)
- [Bitcoin Hashrate and Mining Difficulty](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-hashrate-difficulty)

Build it in Voltfin Studio: https://app.voltfincrypto.com/signup?next=%2F