Recently, Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a surge in transaction fees, surpassing Ethereum (ETH) for three consecutive days as the market anticipates the upcoming Bitcoin halving and the launch of Runes, a new Bitcoin token standard.
On April 17, Bitcoin miners collected $7.47 million in transaction fees, which was slightly higher than the $7.31 million that Ethereum stakers earned on the same day, as reported by Crypto Fees.
This increase in fees for Bitcoin continued from April 15 to 16, where Bitcoin miners earned $9.98 million and $5.91 million, respectively, outpacing Ethereum by significant margins.
Despite these figures, Ethereum still holds a slim advantage over Bitcoin in terms of the average fees collected over the past seven days, amounting to $8.55 million compared to Bitcoin’s $7.57 million.
The calculation of Bitcoin transaction fees is based on the transaction’s size or data volume and the demand for block space at the time the transaction is processed.
This system has led to the recent increase in fees just as Bitcoin miners prepare for the halving event scheduled for April 20.
The halving will reduce the mining reward from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC, significantly impacting miners’ earnings from block rewards.
Currently, about 900 BTC are mined daily, which translates to roughly $57.2 million based on current prices.
With transaction fees of $7.47 million on April 17, these fees represented 11.5% of the total block rewards for Bitcoin miners.
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Post-halving, the importance of transaction fees is expected to increase as daily mining output halves to about 450 BTC.
The introduction of Ordinals inscriptions in January 2023 has already contributed to higher revenue from transaction fees for Bitcoin miners.
This trend is anticipated to continue with the release of Runes at block 840,000, coinciding with the halving event.
Runes aims to simplify the creation of fungible tokens on Bitcoin, targeting memecoin enthusiasts and other community-driven segments.
Casey Rodarmor, the creator of both Ordinals and Runes, explained that Runes are fully UTXO-based, meaning they should not overload the Bitcoin network as much as Ordinals have.
This development comes as prices for BRC-20 tokens, including Ordinals (ORDI) and Sats (SATS), the two largest by market capitalization, have declined by 38% and 43% respectively over the last week, as noted by CoinMarketCap.
This shift in trader focus towards Runes may also be influencing the recent rise in Bitcoin fees.
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