Bitcoin’s new The Cayman Islands-based exchange Gate.io has already listed three of the earliest Runes tokens on WANKO•MANKO•RUNES is the odd token out there, but the other two tokens have something in common besides the odd naming scheme with the interpunct between words (due to protocol naming conventions): They’re among the first 10 tokens etched via the Runes protocol.There was a ⚡️https://t.co/8kWqgEeplL New Listing: SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO——SATOSHI @luminexio Trading Pair: #SATOSHI / $USDT Trading Starts: 04:00 AM, April 21st (UTC) Trade: https://t.co/zszWM9enhE Details: https://t.co/hSKQF1hduU#Gateio #Newlisting pic.twitter.com/9xk6UcfQgD— Gate.io (@gate_io) April 20, 2024Why? As some creators told It could also lend some credibility to these tokens, alongside the ample buzz that propelled those projects to mint out rapidly after launch, and the funding that enabled them to pay the sizable network fees right out the gate. That could be playing a role in which Runes tokens that centralized exchanges are eager to add to their listings.There’s speculation across social media that those first 10 Runes tokens—some of which haven’t actually been deployed yet—are the biggest targets for being listed on exchanges. That said, WANKO•MANKO•RUNES has already bucked the trend, perhaps because it’s built up some hype for being inspired by a story written by Runes protocol creator Casey Rodarmor.Other notable Runes tokens minted to the Bitcoin blockchain in that first set of 10 projects include Rodarmor’s own uncapped UNCOMMON•GOODS (with an endless supply), the soon-to-be-airdropped DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON Centralized exchanges have a way of helping to legitimize assets, elevating them from the The biggest players like Coinbase and Binance are centralized platforms—and a Binance teases listing RunesThey didn’t list BRC-20 until many months after it launchedBut when they did, there was hundreds of millions of dollars in volume and it led $ORDI to hit $1B valuation pic.twitter.com/ut7hVx3B7t— trevor.btc (@TO) April 22, 2024That’s purely speculation for now, but Binance has supported Bitcoin-based Gate.io in particular has a habit of making it to the hottest new thing in the digital asset space. Last year, the exchange was the first to list Runes is a new standard for creating tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. The protocol comes from the creator of Ordinals—another craze which took off last year, allowing people to mint NFT-like assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.Runes are different from Ordinals, however, as rather than unique assets, the protocol allows people to mint tokens that aren’t unique like NFTs but can be exchanged. Think major networks like With Runes, the idea is that the same can be done upon the biggest and oldest crypto network. Last year’s experimental BRC-20 standard did much the same thing, but Runes is said to be a more efficient implementation—and some Bitcoiners believe it will have Edited by Guillermo Jimenez
