Crypto market begins recovery as Runes gain attention ahead of Bitcoin halving

Bitcoin's (BTC) price recovery sparked a price increase across the crypto market on Monday. As anticipation for Bitcoin's halving reaches full swing, Runes, a new Bitcoin-based token standard set to go live in two weeks, is beginning to garner attention in the crypto community.

Also read: Bitcoin breaks past $72,000 for the first time in a month ahead of halving

Bitcoin halving anticipation causing crypto market recovery

After Bitcoin's price briefly broke past $72,000 for the first time in April, several altcoins posted gains, breaking out of the general crypto market stalemate. For example, Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Toncoin (TON), Cardano (ADA), and Avalanche (AVAX) are all up 8.4%, 4.8%, 17.7%, 4.7% and 3.1%, in the past twenty-four hours, respectively.

The recent price surge comes off growing anticipation for the fourth Bitcoin halving, which is eleven days away. The Bitcoin halving, which will reduce the inflationary rate of Bitcoin by 50%, will see miners facing a depletion in mining rewards.

After every halving event, Bitcoin usually records substantial price increases. Due to its high correlation with other assets in the crypto market, several altcoins also follow suit and see significant price growth. Data from CoinGecko shows that Bitcoin and altcoins' prices usually grow to new highs after halving events.

Hence, Monday's buying spree in Bitcoin and altcoins may represent investors' preparation for another potential post-halving bull run. This coincides with a recent prediction by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who expects the crypto market to double in size to $5 trillion by the end of the year.

However, Glassnode and Coinbase analysts have said that the halving effect may already be priced into Bitcoin as the largest digital asset broke its previous all-time high for the first time before a halving event.

Read more: Week Ahead: Crypto market outlook could set to change after stale weekend

Runes set to go live on same day as Bitcoin halving

While the Bitcoin halving approaches, BRC-20 tokens are also gaining investors’ attention. Data from CoinGecko shows that the entire BRC-20 tokens market capitalization has increased by 6.4% in the past twenty-four hours. BRC-20 is an experimental token standard that allows the launching of fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network via a tweak on Bitcoin Ordinals, a feature for launching Bitcoin-based NFT.

The inventor of Bitcoin Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor, has also invented another Bitcoin-based token standard, Runes. Casey has said that Runes will allow launching more secure and sustainable fungible tokens on Bitcoin. Runes is set to go live on the same day as the fourth Bitcoin halving, and traders are expecting it to catalyze the launch of meme tokens on the Bitcoin network.

Also read: Bitcoin price tags $69K as BlackRock enhances Wall Street’s presence in BTC market

Many pre-Rune tokens have already flooded the market in anticipation of Runes' launch. The teams behind these tokens plan to airdrop their Rune-based version to users when Rune goes live. Since their launch, several pre-Rune tokens have recorded gains ranging from 60% to 500%.

New market activities and narratives will continue to surface as the Bitcoin halving edges closer with every passing minute.