Todays Top Stories

Editor: @PhoenixxDown

Alkanes Are Heating Up

Alkanes is quickly becoming more talked about in the Bitcoin ecosystem. But why?

It’s a new metaprotocol designed to bring native smart contract functionality to Bitcoin. Without bridges or sidechains, Alkanes leverages use of existing Bitcoin transaction logic to enable powerful DeFi tools, programmable assets, and full-fledged decentralized apps.

Features possible with Alkanes are automated trading, staking derivatives, and even stablecoins; all secured by Bitcoin's core architecture.

So how does it work? Alkanes uses a combination of Protonunes (smart contract layer via OP_RETURN), Metashrew (an execution and indexing engine), and a WASM runtime (compiled Rust code) to create fully on-chain apps. Essentially, it’s a whole development environment.

For those interested in minting and trading Alkanes assets, you can head over to idclub.io/mint or mintalkanes.com to explore, mint, or bulk mint tokens. Trading happens directly on platforms like idclub, where users can connect wallets and list or purchase tokens like DIESEL, Alkanes' main token.

But beyond that, maybe you’re wondering how this effects Runes? And does it at all? Are those things we love and hate in equal measure now actually cursed?

An exchange between, Ness (a Rune-maxi) and Jin Maa (a builder on Alkanes,) sheds light on that conversation.

Ness pointed out that any platform ignoring OG Runes risks alienating dedicated communities. Jin Maa agreed, but offered further insight. While Alkanes is technically interoperable with Runes, actual support hinges on whether the Runes indexers (controlled by Casey Rodarmor) choose to acknowledge that interoperability.

This is where Cenotaphs come in: structures that burn invalid contract calls, essentially serving as filters. Jin believes a seamless integration is technically feasible, but politically tricky. “Casey holds all the power,” Jin noted.

While Jin’s point is technically true, there is some nuance to consider. Casey maintains the Runes protocol and its primary indexer, which determines what the protocol recognizes as a valid Rune.

The indexer is critical: it's what marketplaces, wallets, and explorers rely on to display and interact with Runes. If it doesn’t recognize Alkanes-based interactions or extensions, they’re effectively invisible to the broader ecosystem.

So, Jin’s point is that even though Alkanes can technically interact with Runes, unless the Runes indexer is updated to recognize those interactions, users won’t see it, and infrastructure won’t support it.

And according to activity, it looks like this is China’s latest favorite toy on Bitcoin. At least, for now.

Whether you're a developer or a degen, this may be the moment to get involved to try something new. Get in early, mint some things, and get some exposure according to your risk appetite.

Runes will soon be coming to Slingshot!

Make sure to sign up via our ExtraOrdinals referral link, or QR code, found below, and make sure you’re all set when they go live!

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Todays Markets

Ordinals

A great day for Ordinals, mostly. Quantum Cats and Taproot Wizards are the only collections in the red among the top 10.

The $BRO Ordinals collection shows up for its first day of volume at 9th place, with a $135 price tag on each of the 3.3K pieces.

Airheads have been on a run lately and still are. The more attention Alkanes gets, the more we’ll probably see these climb. That’s the logical conclusion here.

Runes

Nothing comes even remotely close to $DOG today in volume. Almost a whole Bitcoin traded there, compared to just 0.25 BTC on $MIM in second place.

$BRO hit $2 million briefly yesterday but has since pulled back 19 percent. Still looking solid overall.

$ZBIT and $CYPHER are the biggest winners of the day, up 18 and 22.5 percent respectively.

Still feels like a waiting game across the board for something new to shift the trading dynamic around Runes.

Absolutely no idea what to make of $BITCAT in second place, up 279,464 percent in 24 hours. This is either the third or fourth version of Bitcat. One older version, which had been a mainstay in the top 5, sits at 10th today. That one has 68.3% of the supply held by a single wallet.

Outside of that, most holders are waiting on platform updates from Bob Bodily.

Not much happening over on FunkyBit right now. The order’s the same as the tail end of last week’s update. Same goes for OdinFun. Both are on pause while Alkanes takes the spotlight.

Todays Opportunities

Giveaways

There are currently no raffles taking place today, but check back tomorrow for what’s next so you don’t miss out.