Bitcoin's Average Fees Plunge Following Record High on Halving Day
Summary:
Bitcoin's average fees significantly dropped a day after hitting a record of $128 on the day of the fourth Bitcoin halving event. Medium-priority Bitcoin transaction fees are now averaging between $8-10. Large block fee payouts on the halving day initially shielded miners from the impact of a halving block subsidy. However, with the current average block fee being much lower than the halved block subsidy, the impact is now evident. Despite the halving event, Bitcoin's price has slightly increased. Bitcoin's fees have also outpaced those of Ethereum for six successive days.
Bitcoin's average fees witnessed a significant drop just a day after achieving an all-time high of $128 on April 20, the day of the fourth Bitcoin halving. By April 21, Bitcoin (BTC) fees have reduced to an average of $8-10 for medium-priority transactions, as reported by mempool.space. A day earlier, Bitcoin had ammassed a total of $78.3 million in fees, outperforming Ethereum by more than 24-fold, as per Crypto Fees.
On this day, an astounding 37.7 Bitcoin, equating to $2.4 million, was awarded to Bitcoin miner ViaBTC in the Bitcoin halving block at block height 840,000. This made it the most coveted piece of digital real estate in the cryptocurrency network's 15-year existence. This high demand at block 840,000 was primarily driven by memecoin and nonfungible token aficionados striving to mark and engrave rare satoshis via the Runes protocol. This new token standard was launched at the halving block, and included 3050 transactions for an average user fee of just under $800.
The unusually high block fees persisted until about block 840,200, as noted by mempool.space. However, block fees have now decreased to approximately 1-2 Bitcoin. Miners, despite the halving of block subsidy from 6.25 to 3.125 Bitcoin, were not initially effected on the halving day due to these large block fee payouts. But, with average block fees now much lower than 3.125 Bitcoin, this is no longer the case. For instance, total fees for block 840,266 were 1.64 BTC, with the new block subsidy of 3.125, total rewards were 4.76 BTC.
In other development, Bitcoin fees have surpassed Ethereum for six consecutive days from April 15-20, with its 7-day average fees currently at $17.8 million. The halving event didn't significantly influence Bitcoin's price, which has since increased by 1.5% to $64,840, as per CoinGecko.
Published At
4/22/2024 4:04:16 AM
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