Key Points
- Bitcoin’s average transaction fee decreased after hitting a record high, following the network’s fourth halving.
- The increase in transaction fees coincided with the launch of the Runes protocol and the creation of rune-based memecoins.
Bitcoin Transaction Fees Drop After Record High
The average transaction fee on Bitcoin experienced a decrease on April 21, after reaching an all-time high the previous day. This event occurred in the wake of the network’s fourth halving.
The average fee per Bitcoin transaction fell to $34.8, following a record peak of $128.45 on the day of the halving, as per YCharts data. This fee represents the average cost in U.S. dollars for a Bitcoin transaction to be processed by a miner.
The Impact of Runes Protocol Launch
On April 20, Bitcoin’s total transaction fees rose to $81 million, a significant increase from $7.7 million the previous day. The network recorded $22.37 million in total fees on April 21.
These rising fees coincided with the introduction of the Runes protocol by Casey Rodarmor. This new token standard, akin to BRC-20s, led to an increase in transaction fees as individuals rushed to generate rune-based memecoins.
On the same day, the halving block seemed to originate from the ViaBTC mining pool. The pool received a basic reward of 3.13 BTC ($199,579) and an additional 37.6256 BTC ($2,399,135) paid as transaction fees for the 3,050 transactions included in the block, as per data from Blockchain.com.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin had risen by 0.9% and was trading at approximately $65,700.
