Bitcoin Fees Plummet After Record $128 Average On BTC Halving Day

Updated: 22 April 2024

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Network fees on Bitcoin (BTC) have plummeted just days after reaching a record daily average of $128 during the fourth Bitcoin halving on April 20.

Bitcoin’s average fee for a medium-priority transaction stands between $9 and $10 as of April 22, according to mempool.space.

Bitcoin Fees Top Ethereum’s Gas Costs

Leading up to the halving, network fees on Bitcoin soared to over 24 times that of Ethereum (ETH). The Bitcoin network also clocked approximately $78.3 million in fees during the halving, shows Crypto Fees.

During this same period, an eye-watering 37.7 Bitcoin worth $2.4 million was paid to the Bitcoin miner ViaBTC at block height 840,000. This led to block 840,000 becoming the most sought-after block in Bitcoin’s 15-year history.

Meme coins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were responsible for the majority of the demand at block 840,000. Enthusiasts competed to inscribe rare satoshis on the network via the Runes protocol, which is a new token standard that made its debut during the halving block.

Some 3,050 transactions were subsequently recorded on the block, pushing the average network fee to $800. These above-normal block fees carried on all the way through to around block number 840,200.

Crypto Market Might Trade Sideways In Upcoming Months

While transaction fees surged, BTC’s price has traded relatively flat. In the last 24 hours, the market leader managed to gain more than 1% to trade at $66,167.52 as of 3:15 a.m. EST. This latest increase was enough to bring BTC’s weekly performance out of the red.

#Bitcoin Might Trade Sideways for 6 months As Miners Could Sell $5bn of BTC -> Here is why: https://t.co/gLRgs8yyGg pic.twitter.com/zBLdV95MAl

— 10x Research (@10x_Research) April 13, 2024

BTC’s sideways trading could continue, with the broader market at risk of entering a “six-month lull’ now that the halving is in the past, says 10X Research. Bitcoin miners might liquidate up to $5 billion in Bitcoin in the coming weeks to make up for the lost revenue, it says.

While the surge in network fees during the halving delayed the impact of the event on miners, fees have since subsided. As a result, miners might soon begin to “gradually” sell off their inventories to “prevent a revenue cliff from occurring,” said head of research Markus Thielen in an April 13 research note.