Bitcoin Price Plummets While Transaction Count Hits a Low: The Lowest in 1.5 Years!

The daily transaction count on the Bitcoin (BTC) network has dropped below 350,000, reaching its lowest level in a year and a half, while users' interest has shifted towards alternative blockchain networks supporting Ethereum-like applications.

In 2024, Bitcoin-based protocols experienced a significant surge, peaking in transaction volume with over 700,000 daily transactions. However, the current daily transaction count on the BTC network has seen a dramatic decline, dropping to an average of about 316,000 transactions per week before slightly recovering to around 350,000.

The primary reason for this sudden drop is seen as a decrease in interest in speculative Bitcoin protocols such as Runes and Ordinals. These protocols, which were previously heavily used for Ethereum-style token creation and NFT-like records, have fallen out of favor as investors' attention has shifted to different chains.

New Discussion on the Bitcoin Network: Low-Fee Transactions

On the other hand, the decrease in transaction volume has led to an unusual technical situation on the Bitcoin network. Some users are attempting to make transactions below the fee threshold of 1 satoshi/vB, which is typically rejected by Bitcoin Core software. The mining pool MARA, which acted to support these transactions, has begun using a special method called “Slipstream” to approve ultra-low-fee transactions.

This innovative initiative has sparked new discussions among Bitcoin developers regarding censorship resistance and network standards.

Bitcoin transaction fees have been below 1.50 dollars since the beginning of the year, which is considered a clear indicator of the decrease in transaction volume on the network and Bitcoin's return to more traditional use cases.