Bitcoin Hovers Near $65K; Miners Reap Gains On Rune Launch
By Laxmikant Khanvilkar
Virtual digital assets (VDA) are starting the week on a somber note amid successful completion of the Bitcoin (BTC) halving event, which has reduced mining reward.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value did tried to cling on to $65,000 mark and most recently traded at $64,837 up 0.2%. The token is benefiting from increased mining activity due to the simultaneous launch of Casey Rodarmor’s new Runes protocol – for minting digital tokens on top of the oldest and largest blockchain.
Bitcoin halving – the once in a four year event – took place late last week and was supposedly bring a steep cut in revenue for crypto miners, since their rewards for new data blocks would drop by 50%. However, the Runes launch gained popularity and caused massive network congestion, sending transaction fees to record levels and showering Bitcoin miners with a windfall like never before.
The average Bitcoin transaction fees stood at $127.97 on April 20, when the halving took place and Runes launched, based on coordinated universal time. That’s more than seven times the average fee rate on the day before, and roughly double the previous record set three years ago.
Broader markets tried to maintain a perfect harmony with Bitcoin.
Ethereum (Ether), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, hovered above $3,100 level and recently changed hands at $3,149 adding 0.1%.
Elsewhere, ADA, AVA, BNB, alongside certain altcoins quoted in the negative territory.
The global crypto market cap increased 0.3% to $2.39 trillion in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, the total crypto market volume fell 9% to $56 billion. Total volume in DeFi is currently $5 billion, and all stablecoins are $51 billion, representing 9% and 91%, respectively, of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 53.5%, up 0.03% over the day.
The IC15 index, the barometer of the top fifteen tokens, rose 0.3% to 81,421.
Meanwhile, analysts believe the current scenario is “a preview of what’s to come in Bitcoin mining economics decades from now, as Bitcoin monetizes into a $10 trillion+ asset, demand for the network is orders of magnitude larger than today, and we’ve had a few more halvings”. That’s good news for miners such as Marathon Digital Holdings, Riot Blockchain, Hut 8 Mining and Core Scientific.
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