Bitcoin fights to sustain its bull run while fees slide 56% YTD
Bitcoin's on-chain activity is quiet with daily fees down 56% year-to-date, contrasting with its struggling price near $110,000.Summary
Bitcoin is experiencing a period of on-chain quietude in 2024, characterized by significantly lower transaction fees, which have fallen by 56% since January, dropping total daily fees from 4.7 BTC to just over 2 BTC. This decline has pushed the fee-to-reward ratio down to 0.78%, increasing the reliance of miners on the block subsidy and making network security more sensitive to the BTC/USD exchange rate. While the lower fees and reduced mempool congestion benefit traders and users with cheaper, faster settlement, this structural shift suggests that much of the activity is now occurring off-chain or through batching, decoupling on-chain volume from price action. Miners face thinner margins; if the price drops below $100,000, revenues could compress sharply. Despite the current stability and efficiency of the base layer, the long-term sustainability of this low-fee environment depends on future demand.
(Source：CryptoSlate)