The portion of Bitcoin miners' revenue derived from transaction fees has declined significantly after spiking on the day of the previous halving event.
According to a report by CryptoQuant, transaction fees now account for 35% of miners' total revenue, a significant decrease from the 75% recorded on April 19th.
Transaction fees skyrocket during halving
During the fourth Bitcoin halving, which took place last Friday, the miner block reward was halved to 3.125 Bitcoins (BTC), resulting in a drop in daily issuance from an average of 900 BTC to 450 BTC.
During the halving, daily revenue for miners soared to $100 million due to a notable increase in transaction fees. The Bitcoin network's daily fees soared to 1,258 BTC ($80 million), an unprecedented level and accounted for 75% of the day's total revenue.
One of the main drivers of high transaction fees was the Runes protocol, which drove network activity after it was launched with Bitcoin's halving block. Runes allows for the issuance and transfer of fungible tokens by storing data in the OP RETURN code. Half-life code usage hit an all-time high of 512,000 as users flooded Rune Protocol.
Significant reduction in fees
Within 24 hours of the halving, trading fees returned to lower levels and remained there. Fees currently account for 35% of miners' total revenue, but the latter currently hovers at around $50 million, down 35% from its all-time high level of around $78 million before the halving.
Bitcoin transaction fees have fallen to $6 million from $80 million on April 20, according to YCharts data. It has averaged around $16 million over the past week, with the lowest value coming on April 26th.
For miners whose block rewards have been cut in half, higher transaction fees and rising BTC prices will help them survive. With fees plummeting by the day and BTC struggling even with above $64,000, some miners may soon be forced to exit.
Nevertheless, CryptoQuant stated that it is too early to see the long-term impact of the halving on network hashrate as miners appear to be performing operations at the same rate as before the halving. The Bitcoin network hash rate is 617 EH/s, but its hash price is currently $0.07 per TH/s, the lowest since October.
