The Bitcoin transaction fees, which soared to an all-time high during the fourth halving event, have declined dramatically in the aftermath.
On April 19, the Bitcoin network successfully completed its fourth halving, reducing the mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. However, once the block 840,000 was mined, the transaction fees shot up to $2.4M, making it one of the most lucrative blocks in Bitcoin's history.
The release of the Runes protocol also contributed to the spike in the BTC transaction fees. Originally designed to mitigate the revenue drop from halving, Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor's latest token standard unexpectedly led to a surge in the activity on the Bitcoin blockchain. Soon after its launch, Runes quickly gained popularity and drove transaction fees to record levels.
However, the transaction fees went on a downswing in just a few days. Data from Bitcoin Explorer mempool revealed that the average fees have dropped to $9 for low, medium, and high-priority transactions, significantly lower than the halving day high.
Despite the tumultuous trend in its transaction fees, Bitcoin's price hasn't experienced drastic changes yet. As of writing, the most popular crypto token is valued at $66.02K, up by 1.62% in the last 24 hours.