Bitcoin’s 60% uptake of transaction fees mirrors network usage

Bitcoin’s recent bullish crossover resulted in the escalation of its price by 7% and crossing the $10k hurdle. With a rising price, the overall active addresses on the Bitcoin network noted a steady rise, with large addresses, with a balance of at least 1/1k of the total BTC supply, holding about 11% of the total supply, according to data provider Coin Metrics.

Despite a surge in BTC spot price and an overall increase in the active addresses, the past week saw a dip in the number of these addresses.

Source: Coin Metrics

According to the data provided by Coin Metrics, the number of active addresses on 11 February was 886k; this value fell down to 655.188k on 16 February. This was a drop of 26% within a week and corresponded with the drop in trading activity on the network.

However, as the price of the crypto asset started to swing higher, increased usage of the network was witnessed. This increased usage contributed to the rising median transaction fee. The largest crypto outpaced most major crypto assets as its transaction fee noted a 61.71% hike over the past 30 days, as it followed Ethereum which also reflected a spike in its fee by 80.68%. BTC’s median fee was reported to be around 0.18426 BTC on 19 January, which responded with the growing activity on the network and reached 0.39977 BTC on 16 February.

Source: Coin Metrics

With a slowed-down performance of the Bitcoin index in the previous week, USD returns felt the effect, as it dipped under 0%, incurring losses. Whereas, Ethereum’s index took a lead while provided almost 15% returns.

Source: Coin Metrics