Coinspeaker
Bitcoin Layer 2 Coins Rally after BTC Halving Event 2024
Bitcoin had a successful halving event last Friday, April 19, at the block height of 840,000 further reducing the mining rewards by 50%. Bitcoin price has regained more than 10% from the lows of $60,000, seen just ahead of the halving event. As of press time, Bitcoin price is trading with a market cap of $1.3 trillion. However, along with BTC, several Bitcoin Layer 2 coins have surged by a staggering 5-20% in the last three days since halving.
STX, the native cryptocurrency belonging to Bitcoin Layer 2 network Stacks, has surged by a staggering 20% to $2.87 in the last three days since the fourth Bitcoin halving. This also makes STX one of the best-performing cryptos in the top 25 list over the last 24 hours.
Since the halving event, Elastos’ ELA token has surged by 11%, while SatoshiVM’s SAVM has seen a 5% increase in value. Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions are typically projects addressing transaction speed and scalability limitations on the Bitcoin blockchain network. Built atop the Bitcoin blockchain network, this Layer 2 solutions enhance scalability by processing transactions off-chain.
Bitcoin Transactions Fee Fluctuates
According to Glassnode’s data, the average transaction fee surged to almost 0.0020 BTC following the halving, marking its highest level since early 2018. This increase in fees can be attributed to the introduction of a new protocol called Runes, enabling users to “etch” and create tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. The launch of Runes led to a surge in speculation, token minting, and meme coin trading, driving up transaction volumes and consequently raising transaction costs.
By April 20, a day after halving, the Bitcoin transaction fees skyrocketed to $128 leading to millions of dollars in profits for miners. However, the transaction fees have once again cooled down in the range of $8–$10 for medium-priority transactions. During the period from April 15 to 20, Bitcoin’s transaction fees have consistently exceeded those of Ethereum for six consecutive days. The seven-day average fee for Bitcoin now stands at $17.8 million.
Along with the native tokens of the Bitcoin Layer 2 solution, the Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs have also been in the limelight over the weekend. With the 60% drop in the floor price of Bitcoin Runestone, the floor price of Ordinals like Bitcoin Puppets and NodeMonkes has surged by 20% and 7% respectively.
