$RUNE is the native token for the THORchain network which is responsible for the flow of liquidity on the network. THORchain liquidity pools are made up of 50% $RUNE and 50% another L1 asset making $RUNE an important part of the ecosystem. Therefore, it will be important for stakeholders of the network to hold $RUNE tokens.
On the secondary decentralized market, $RUNE can be obtained by swapping in any supported L1 assets like BTC, LTC, and BNB. In this publication, we want to know the unique wallets (users) that are buying $RUNE and how purchasing behaviour has changed over time.
First, let's start by looking at the unique wallets by chain presented in the donut chart below.
Of the overall THORchain users coming from various L1s, we can see that at the time of this writing, 37% come from Binance Smart Chain, 19.2% come from Ethereum, and 15.9% come from Bitcoin, and 14.2% were from Terra.
How has the number of users deposited into $RUNE changed over time? In the line chart below let's analyse if we can see any trends.
The number of unique users buying up to $RUNE has been quite steady since its inception. The monthly figure is typically within 2k-6k until February 2022, when the number of users skyrocketed to an all-time high of 12.4k.
Did this increase in unique buyers have an impact on the trade volume of $RUNE? Let us answer this question user the chart below which shows the $RUNE amount bought monthly over time.
We can see that the pattern of trade in buying $RUNE is no different from that of the former. There was a steep rise in volume starting in February 2022, which led to an all-time high of 703.8m $RUNE tokens.
What was responsible for this sudden rise in the purchase of $RUNE? The answer can be found in the price action which is presented in the chart below:
In February 2022, the $RUNE price dropped below 3.5 USD which investors considered as a very good price to accumulate. The buying of $RUNE continued until it reached its peak in April which marked the beginning of the bear market. As of the month of June 2022, $RUNE buys have reduced in volume as the market continues to experience a downtrend.