Bitcoin Transaction Fees Dropped from a $146 High Post-Halving

Following a dramatic spike, Bitcoin transaction fees have significantly decreased, settling at levels that provide relief to users.

Last week, the network witnessed fees soaring to unprecedented heights, with medium-priority transactions hitting over $146 and high-priority ones reaching $170. However, recent data indicates a steep decline.

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Normalize Post-Halving

The Bitcoin mempool, which holds all valid transactions awaiting network confirmation, currently lists the transaction fees for medium and high-priority transactions at $10.85 and $11.32, respectively.

This reduction comes after the Bitcoin’s much-discussed halving, which traditionally impacts both transaction fees and miner revenues. The halving reduced the reward for mining new blocks, which theoretically could increase transaction fees due to decreased supply of new BTC.

Despite these predictions, fees have normalized, significantly lower than their peak.

Read more: What Happened at the Last Bitcoin Halving? Predictions for 2024

Bitcoin Transaction Fees. Source: Glassnode

The potential earnings per hash for miners, has also seen a decline. From a pre-halving high of $182.98 per hash/day, it now stands at $76.68. This suggests that the halving’s impact may be less severe than anticipated, at least in the short term.

“While historical data has proven useful in guiding market analysis around previous halvings, this time around a more valuable metric has been spot Bitcoin ETF inflows. Miner sell volume is a drop in the bucket compared to the demand we’ve seen for Bitcoin this year, much of it fueled by institutions,” Ken Timsit, Managing Director at Cronos Labs, told BeInCrypto.

Amidst these economic shifts, Bitcoin has remained relatively stable in market price, currently trading above $66,000.

The introduction of Runes protocol, coinciding with the halving, aimed to mitigate revenue losses by boosting Bitcoin on-chain activity. Lucas Outumuro, Head of Research at IntoTheBlock, labelled such spike as “absolutely insane,” resulting in a record of over $100 million in Bitcoin mining revenue.

Despite initial hopes, these collections have not replaced the lost revenue as effectively as anticipated. Still, Outumuro believes the true challenge lies in its sustainability and the ability to sustain the initial momentum.