Key Points
- Bitcoin (BTC) network activity is nearing historic lows, with a significant decrease in transactions.
- Analytics firm Santiment’s data reveals a decline in various metrics, including transaction volume, daily active addresses, and whale transaction count.
Bitcoin Network Activity Slows Down
The Bitcoin (BTC) network is experiencing a slowdown in activity. This comes two months after Bitcoin reached a new all-time high.
Data from Santiment, a data analytics firm, reveals a decrease in on-chain activity on the Bitcoin network over the past few months. This provides a detailed perspective of the cryptocurrency’s current state.
Decline in Various Metrics
On May 11, Santiment highlighted that on-chain activity on the Bitcoin network is at its lowest since 2019. This is based on a noticeable downtrend in various metrics, including transaction volume, daily active addresses, and whale transaction count.
Santiment’s data shows that Bitcoin’s on-chain transaction volumes are nearing their lowest level in 10 years. Additionally, the number of daily active addresses is at its lowest since January 2019.
Whale transactions, typically those worth more than $100,000, have also slowed significantly. This mirrors levels last seen in December 2018.
While this decline in on-chain activity may seem concerning at first, Santiment analysts suggest it doesn’t necessarily correlate with upcoming BTC price drops. They attribute the decline to “crowd fear and indecision” among traders, emphasizing the complex relationship between on-chain activity and market sentiment.
Despite these challenges, Bitcoin’s price remained relatively steady at the time of writing, slightly above $61,000, with a minor 0.1% increase in the past day.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume was $12.67 billion, over 37% lower than the previous day. Over seven days, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 4.6%, underperforming the global crypto market, which is down by 4.2%, according to data from CoinGecko.
As investors navigate this period of consolidation and subdued on-chain activity, market sentiment and broader economic factors will likely influence Bitcoin’s trajectory in the coming weeks.
Runes Protocol on Bitcoin
A Dune Analytics dashboard shows that the Runes protocol on Bitcoin generated $135 million in transaction fees on the cryptocurrency’s largest blockchain.
On-chain data revealed that tokens issued under the standard generated over 2,100 BTC costs within a week after the halving. However, activity has since slowed. According to a Dune analytics dashboard, Friday, May 10 saw the lowest level of activity on the Runes protocol.
