Bitcoin jumps to $9k as Average BTC Transaction Fees Increased 300% Days Before Halving
The price of Bitcoin has broken through the $9k mark on the day of the Bitcoin halving. While Bitcoin’s price was nearing $10k just yesterday, it suddenly dropped down to lows of $8,450, struggling to recover.
BTC 1H price chart | Source: Tradingview
It is currently in the low $9k area at the press time — but the price is fluctuating wildly.
The Bitcoin halving is an event where the new supply of Bitcoin gets cut in half. Speculators argue that this could either boost the price of Bitcoin or make the network more expensive, and slower to use—potentially making it less usable and less valuable. It is set to occur at 7 pm UTC (3 pm ET) today.
Bitcoin’s trading volume is fairly high at $50 billion over the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it saw a recent high of $63 billion.
Bitcoin’s market dominance has increased to 67.6% from 63.7% on April 27. This is the percent of the entire crypto market cap that Bitcoin holds.
The recent surge has added $8,5 billion to the cryptocurrency market cap, which is now at $245 billion, although it’s still down from recent highs of $270 billion.
The altcoin market cap is currently resting on a critical support level, which is between $70-73 billion. If it holds this level, a potential test of $80 and $86 billion are on the table.
However, if the altcoin market cap drops below this support, a further test of $65-67 billion is likely.
The average transaction fee for Bitcoin increase of over 300%
With the third Bitcoin rewards halving scheduled in approximately 14 hours at the time of press, the average value of transaction fees has surged more than 300%.
According to data available on Bitinfocharts, the average transaction fees for Bitcoin on May 8 peaked at $3.19, an increase of over 300% from the average fee on April 26, $0.62. The last time the average BTC transaction fee was over $3.00 was in July 2019.
Source: Bitinfocharts
Historically, Bitcoin transaction fees prior to a halving event have increased markedly. The last halving on July 9, 2016 saw transaction fees skyrocket in the weeks prior, even briefly peaking at an average of $0.62/transaction when the value was around $0.10 within a 24-hour window.
Source: Bitinfocharts
In December 2017, when BTC reached its ATH price of approximately $20,000, the average transaction fee was roughly $55. However, BCH proponent, Roger Ver recently claimed he has been charged fees exceeding $1,000.
Many traders have become increasingly bullish on Bitcoin as the block reward halving approaches. An increase in the average transaction fee may indicate that users are willing to pay more to get their transactions processed faster.
Read more:
- This Is The Reason Why Satoshi Nakamoto Created The Bitcoin Halving
- Bitcoin Will Soon Be Trading Back Above $9,000, Analysts Said