There's been lots of debate about Core v30 removing the OP_RETURN size/count policy defaults, so I ran the numbers for the latest mempool research report:
https://research.mempool.space/opreturn-report/
There were three big waves of OP_RETURN usage: 2019, 2024, 2025. Nearly all standard transactions. The nonstandard ones are so rare you can hardly see them on the chart.
The 2019 Veriblock wave actually put more data on-chain than anything since. People talk about recent OP_RETURN usage like it's unprecedented, but surprisingly it isn't.
The important thing is that the spikes in nonstandard OP_RETURNs were in Mar 2024, May 2025, Aug 2025. All before v30 shipped in November 2025. The rate hasn't gone up since. At all. In fact it's come down
Runes transactions were standard under the old rules and would even still be standard for #BIP110 (the proposal that's supposedly aims to curb data embedding). If these guys are serious about stopping data they should block runes.
TL;DR: v30 recognised what was already occasionally happening on-chain. Nonstandard OP_RETURNs are vanishingly rare, haven't increased post-v30, and the current wave is already cooling off. The data doesn't support the panic.
Read the full report linked below 👇
https://research.mempool.space/opreturn-report/
