After the Bitcoin (BTC) halving event that took place at 12:10 GMT on April 20 2024, transaction fees on the network surged, partly due to the launch of the Runes token standard, which led to a significant increase in gas fees.
BITCOIN | #Bitcoin Completes its 4th Halving, Miner Rewards Slashed from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC
Despite this reduction, miners still earn transaction fees for each block they mine as usual.https://t.co/l6WX2PYd15 pic.twitter.com/JxhoBkRXYp
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 20, 2024
The standard had proven so popular that it caused massive network congestion, sending transaction fees to record levels and showering Bitcoin miners with a windfall.
Nine of the top 10 most valuable blocks have been mined today pic.twitter.com/0W5zbLOHx0
— Clark Moody (@clarkmoody) April 20, 2024
On April 20 2024, the day of the Bitcoin halving and the launch of Runes, Bitcoin transaction fees reached an unprecedented average of $128.45. This figure surpassed the average fee rate of the previous day by over seven times and marked approximately double the previous record set three years ago.
This development could be a boon for major bitcoin mining firms such as:
- Marathon Digital Holdings ($MARA)
- Riot Blockchain ($RIOT)
- Hut 8 Mining (HUT), and
- Core Scientific (CORZ)
who are now earning record revenues despite the recent halving having cut block rewards by 50%.
Bitcoin managed to generate $78.3 million worth of fees on April 20 2024, surpassing Ethereum’s $3.2 million. The total revenue for bitcoin miners, comprising both block rewards and transaction fees, reached an all-time high of $107.8 million for a single day, according to YCharts.
However, as shown in the chart above, the latest Bitcoin Average Transaction Fee from April 21 2024 is at a current level of $34.86, down from $128.45 the previous day, which is a change of -72.86%.
Runes is Bitcoin’s new fungible token standard, like what ERC-20 is to Ethereum [ETH]. This means it can be used to make a wide range of assets from memecoins to governance tokens on the Bitcoin network.
According to Ten31, a bitcoin analyst group, the success of these new applications will mean more demand for blockspace on the blockchain, and rising fees.
“To the extent that bitcoin continues to gain users and demand for economically dense settlement transactions, we expect fees to use the network’s scarce blockspace to increase accordingly – said another way, fees are designed to pump forever. “
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