Bitcoin Fees Plummet After Reaching Record High
Just one day after hitting an all-time high average fee of $128 on April 20, Bitcoin fees have sharply fallen. As of April 21, medium-priority transactions are now averaging $8-10, according to mempool.space.
Bitcoin’s fees reached their peak on the day of the fourth Bitcoin halving, surpassing Ethereum’s fees by over 24 times, according to Crypto Fees. In fact, a total of $78.3 million in fees were paid on that day alone.
One particularly notable transaction occurred in the Bitcoin halving block at block height 840,000, where ViaBTC, a Bitcoin miner, received a staggering 37.7 Bitcoin ($2.4 million). This made it the most coveted piece of digital real estate in the network’s 15-year history.
The demand for block 840,000 mainly came from memecoin and nonfungible token enthusiasts who were competing to inscribe and etch rare satoshis using the Runes protocol. This protocol is a new token standard that was launched during the halving block.
In total, 3050 transactions were included in block 840,000, resulting in an average payment of just under $800 per user.
The higher-than-normal block fees continued until approximately block 840,200, as reported by mempool.space. However, fees have since fallen to around 1-2 Bitcoin per block.
The significant fees paid to miners on halving day initially shielded them from the impact of the block subsidy halving, which reduced the reward from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin. But now that the average block fee is well below 3.125, miners are starting to feel the effects.
Interestingly, Bitcoin’s fees have surpassed those of Ethereum for six consecutive days between April 15-20, with a 7-day fee average of $17.8 million.
Despite the halving event, Bitcoin’s price has remained relatively unaffected, experiencing a modest 1.5% increase since then, reaching $64,840, according to CoinGecko.