The Bitcoin (BTC) network has completed its fourth halving event with the addition of block 840,000 to the blockchain. However, the transaction fees rose significantly following the historical event.
The halving mechanism is hardwired into Bitcoin's code and is meant to counter inflation. Every time the BTC blockchain undergoes halving, the amount of tokens generated by mining gets slashed in half. The landmark event occurs when a block that is a multiple of 210,000 is mined, which typically takes place every four years.
Until a few hours ago, miners would earn 6.25 BTC every time they successfully mined a block. But after the fourth halving, this reward has been reduced to 3.125 BTC.
Unfortunately, the decrease in BTC rewards was not the only change that accompanied today's halving. A staggering $2.4 million fee accompanied the 840,000 block, compared to the $40,000 to $60,000 range seen in typical blocks before the halving.
The release of the Runes protocol has also led to an increase in the BTC transaction fees. Developed by the creator of Ordinals, Runes is not very different from the former. The only difference is that, while Ordinals allows users to create NFTs by attaching images to the smallest denomination of BTC (called Satoshi), Runes lets users create meme coins. The Runes protocol went online shortly after the fourth halving, and within minutes, users had spent millions of US Dollars (USD) on minting memecoins.
Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin has slightly increased following a tumultuous week. The most popular crypto token is currently valued at $65.21K, up by 1.14% over the last 24 hours.
