The average transaction fee of the Bitcoin network reached a historical high of $128 on the day of the fourth halving, but according to data from BitInfoCharts, it sharply dropped to $34.8 just a day later.
Source: BitInfoCharts
Bitcoin reached block height 840,000 at 8 am Taiwan time on April 20, officially completing the fourth halving in history. The mining reward per block decreased from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. According to data from mempool.space, the fourth halving block was mined by ViaBTC, with a total transaction fee of 37.626 BTC (approximately $2.4 million).
The record-breaking fees were attributed to the frenzy of Degen participants inscribing and etching rare satoshis on the halving block. Most of these activities originated from the Runes Protocol created by Casey Rodmarmor, the founder of Bitcoin Ordinals. This protocol was launched simultaneously with the Bitcoin halving.
Data from Crypto Fees shows that on April 20 alone, Bitcoin’s total transaction fees reached $78.3 million, more than 24 times that of Ethereum. The fourth halving block contained 3,050 transactions, meaning that on average, each user paid nearly $800.
Source: Crypto Fees
Data from mempool.space shows that the above-normal block fees persisted until around block height 840,200, and then dropped to approximately 1 to 2 BTC. Furthermore, from April 15 to April 21, Bitcoin’s total transaction fees exceeded Ethereum’s for six consecutive days. As of April 21, the 7-day average fee for Bitcoin was $20.25 million.
Data source
