The Bitcoin network has witnessed a surge in trading activity in the days following the halving, as evidenced by on-chain data. Although the righteous halving completed brought A lot of attention for Bitcoin, the recent increase in trading activity can be attributed to something else.
According to data from on-chain analytics platform IntoTheBlock, the number of daily BTC transactions has grown rapidly in recent days, reaching a new high of 927,000 thanks to a new token standard Called runes.
Daily Bitcoin transactions reach new all-time high
The price of Bitcoin has soared since the start of the year, with interest in the leading cryptocurrency exploding. All that new interest means more people are buying, selling, and trading BTC, which has led to a huge increase in the number of daily transactions.
Despite the increase in activity, the number of daily transactions failed to surpass the record 724,000 set in the past four months until recently this week.
The main catalyst for this wave of activity is the recent launch of the Runes token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Runes Protocol is a new token standard on BTC that provides users with a more efficient way to create fungible tokens.
Runes’ additional functionality opens up new possibilities for Bitcoin, allowing users to create non-fungible tokens more efficiently than the existing BRC-20 token system.
Bitcoin is now trading at $63.711. Chart: TradingView
The Runes token standard rose among developers and users immediately after launch, accounting for more than 68% of recorded Bitcoin transactions. According to Dune’s analytics dashboard, the number of Runes transactions rose to 753,000 on Tuesday, April 23. As a result, the total number of transactions on the day exceeded 927,000, breaking the record of 724,000 in December 2023.
Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high in daily transactions!
After the launch of Runes, the number of Bitcoin transactions increased rapidly, reaching 927,000 on Tuesday. This breaks the previous high of 724k from December 2023 pic.twitter.com/30JXbrLmdR
— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) April 26, 2024
On the other hand, the hype surrounding the Runes token standard seems to have faded so quickly. The number of transactions on Runes has now fallen to 104,800 in the past 24 hours, which amounts to 26% of the total number of transactions.
Bitcoin price prediction
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $63,711, with price resistance now around $64,500. Bitcoin’s price trajectory can be very difficult to predict. Many Bitcoin analysts and traders are still looking forward to a bullish impact from the just-completed halving on the cryptocurrency’s price. A Bitcoin Bull Flag just formed suggesting the possibility of an uptrend in the very short term.
However, crypto expert Peter Brandt believes that Bitcoin may have already reached its peak in the current market cycle. His theory is based on exponential decay thesis showing that Bitcoin price percentage gains have declined in subsequent market cycles.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView
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