Weekly Bitcoin Payments Fall to Lowest Level in 8 Months: ITB

Transaction fees on the Bitcoin network continue to decline months after their recent peak during the halving event.

According to data from IntoTheBlock, fees on the main crypto network fell by 18% this week after dropping 27% the previous week. The series of declines put Bitcoin payments at their lowest since November 2023.

Bitcoin payments are going down.

Three months ago, Bitcoin recorded the highest transaction fee among all protocols, including Ethereum. For a few days before the last Bitcoin halving event, the network's payouts outstripped all others as activity surged.

One of the main reasons for the increase in transaction fees at the time was the launch of the Runes protocol, which was finally carried out in half a day. Runes enable the extraction and transmission of fungible tokens on the network, and the combination of this new development with the old standard protocol, introduced Bitcoin-fungible tokens, increased activity and, respectively, payments.

However, transaction fees have been declining for a few days after the halving, dropping to 35% of Bitcoin mining revenue from the 75% recorded before the event. Halfway through the day, daily Bitcoin payouts rose to a new all-time high of $80 million, but at the time of writing, the network recorded less than $6 million in weekly payouts.

According to data from mempool.space, the average price of a Bitcoin transaction is 5 sats/vByte at a value of $0.0029, which is a far cry from the 90 sats/vByte ($8.50) recorded in mid-April. Additionally, according to data on YCharts, Bitcoin is currently accumulating less than $1 million in transaction fees per day. In fact, the last time the network recorded transaction fees was 1 million dollars on July 3. By July 11, the payments had reached $721,599.

Is BTC Ready for a Rally?

The decline in Bitcoin transaction fees is due to a number of factors, mainly the decline in network activity, which coincides with the decline in the frontier market. Bitcoin has experienced a significant drop in price over the past few weeks, so much so that its price has dropped to a level not seen since the end of February.

As the main propellant of the shutdown, the supply from the German authorities will soon ease, Bitcoin may be ready to rally soon. It remains to be seen whether the network's transaction fees will continue to follow.