The average transaction fee on the Bitcoin network experienced a notable decline on Sunday, April 21, after reaching a record high the previous day following the network’s fourth halving event. This decline in transaction fees comes as the network adjusts following heightened activity associated with the rollout of Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol.
According to data from YCharts, the average fee paid on Bitcoin per transaction dropped to $34.8 on April 21, down from a record high of $128.45 recorded on the day of the halving event. The average transaction fee is a measure of the average fee in U.S. dollar terms incurred when processing a bitcoin transaction on the network.
On April 20, total transaction fees on the Bitcoin network surged to $81 million, a significant increase from $7.7 million recorded the previous day. However, the network saw a decrease in total fees on April 21, totaling $22.37 million.
The spike in transaction fees coincided with the launch of the Runes protocol, a new token standard similar to BRC-20s, developed by Casey Rodarmor. The introduction of the Runes protocol led to increased transaction activity as users rushed to create rune-based memecoins, contributing to the rise in fees.
On April 20, the halving block, mined by the ViaBTC mining pool, included a basic reward of 3.13 BTC ($199,579) and an additional reward of 37.6256 BTC ($2,399,135) paid as fees for the 3,050 transactions included in the block, according to Blockchain.com’s tracker.
Despite the fluctuations in transaction fees, Bitcoin’s price edged up by 0.9% to trade around $65,700 at the time of publication, according to The Block’s price page.