Since the halving, 63 blocks have been mined, and bitcoin miners have accumulated substantial fees following a dramatic increase in the fee rate. This surge took the cost per transaction from $18 to over $245, recorded at 9:00 p.m. EDT on Friday evening. Since then fees have dropped and by Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. EDT, transfer fees are down to $34 per transaction.
Massive Revenue Recorded as Fees Skyrocket on the Bitcoin Blockchain
Following the halving event, bitcoin fees, or the cost to conduct transactions onchain, experienced a notable increase. This uptick was primarily driven by a marked increase in the minting activity of Runes protocol and efforts to front-run in order to capture newly minted runes. Block 840,000, which was processed by the mining pool Viabtc, yielded 3.125 newly created BTC and 37.625 BTC in transfer fees, collected from the 3,050 transactions included in the block.
In the subsequent 12 blocks, including Viabtc’s halving block, bitcoin miners secured 257.043 BTC valued at $16.35 million. Following 60 blocks, BTC miners had accumulated over 860 BTC, surpassing $54 million in value. By the time they reached block height 840,005, the mining pool Antpool had garnered 32.946 BTC in fees. The high fees collected within these 60 blocks exceeded those of any previous 24-hour period.
Bitcoin’s hashprice on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
By 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, fees had decreased to 375 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB) or $35 per transaction. Post-halving, Bitcoin’s hashprice, or the anticipated value of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of hashing power per day, fell below the $65 per PH/s mark. However, following the spike in fees, it rebounded to about $144 per PH/s by 6 a.m. EDT, which is higher than the pre-halving hashprice of $104 per PH/s.
Additionally, Bitcoin’s total hashrate has consistently stayed above 650 exahash per second (EH/s). Block intervals have slightly undercut the 10-minute average, and Bitcoin’s difficulty retarget is projected to rise by at least 2% in the coming four days. Over the last day, 145 blocks were mined; Foundry led with 43, Antpool contributed 33, F2pool added 20, and Viabtc accounted for 16, including the significant block 840,000.
What do you think about onchain fees skyrocketing following the halving? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
