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Transaction fees soar after halving
Decline in rune popularity leads to lower network fees
After Bitcoin set a new record with an average transaction fee of $128 on the day of the halving on April 20, the average fee plummeted within a day. According to data from mempool.space, as of April 21, the average fee for Bitcoin “medium priority” transactions has dropped to $11.
On the day of the halving, the total fees for the Bitcoin network reached $78.3 million, according to data from Crypto Fees, which is 24 times higher than Ethereum.
Especially when the block height reached 840,000 (the halving occurred), the Runes Protocol, a new token standard on the Bitcoin network, was activated. Many users paid a total of 37.7 BTC ($2.4 million) in fees to Bitcoin miners at ViaBTC to compete for deploying and mining Runes. This block included 3,050 transactions, meaning that each user paid an average fee of nearly $800.
According to data from mempool.space, higher-than-normal block fees continued until approximately block 840,200. After that, fees for individual blocks dropped to around 1-2 BTC, which is largely related to the weakening Rune hype.
Although there are many technical differences between Runes and BRC20, the user experience seems to have little difference under the current infrastructure. Liquidity issues have not been improved, and the current Rune projects lack leaders who can guide unique culture and community. This has led to investors gradually shifting their attitude from being proactive to being cautious.
