Bitcoin transaction fees have seen a substantial decrease post-halving, marking a notable shift from the elevated fees observed immediately after the event. At the height of the post-halving period, fees surged to as high as $146 for medium-priority transactions and $170 for high-priority transactions.
However, recent data from Mempool.space indicates a significant reduction in transaction costs. Medium-priority transactions are now priced at $8.48, while high-priority transactions cost $9.32, reflecting a considerable drop from the previous highs.
Accompanying the decline in transaction fees is the shift in the hashprice index, a metric developed by Luxor to quantify miner earnings per unit of hashrate. The index has decreased from $182.98 per hash/day to $81, indicating a dip in potential miner revenue post-halving.
Miners had anticipated the halving to have a substantial impact on revenue. The introduction of Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol, aimed at creating fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, was expected to mitigate this loss by boosting on-chain activity. However, initial data suggests a different outcome.
In the days following the halving, the floor prices for the Runes NFT collection, which was intended to generate fee revenue, have dropped by almost 50% within 24 hours. Magic Eden reports a floor price of nearly 0.037 BTC for the runestone NFT collection. In contrast, ordinal collections such as Bitcoin Pullets and NodeMonkes have seen price increases of 11% and 8%, respectively, according to CoinGecko.
While these ordinal collections also contribute to transaction fees, it appears that the Runes protocol has not provided the expected revenue boost as anticipated. This suggests a shift in the landscape of fee generation within the Bitcoin network following the halving event.