Bitcoin (BTC) – the world’s first and most valuable cryptocurrency – has surpassed one billion transactions processed. This milestone was reached 800 weeks and one day after Bitcoin launched on January 3, 2009 with the minting of its genesis block.
The timing of this milestone is particularly exciting for the cryptocurrency as it has seen increased levels of daily transactions over the past year. This increase in activity can also be partially attributed to the emergence of novel Bitcoin-based non-fungible token (NFT) protocols such as Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes, which have attracted more users to the world’s first blockchain. Additionally, the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US and more recently in Hong Kong over the past year has contributed to bullish sentiment for the token.
Bitcoin is not the first cryptocurrency to reach a milestone
While this is not the first blockchain to reach the one billion transaction milestone – its rival Ethereum (ETH), for example, has already processed almost 2.4 billion transactions – Bitcoin’s path to this point has been slower and more gradual. With an average rate of 6 transactions per second over the last 30 days, according to Clark Moody’s Bitcoin dashboard, the achievement comes just weeks after the last scheduled halving.
After the halving hype, daily transaction fees have largely declined. However, the seven-day moving average of on-chain transactions remains high compared to most of Bitcoin’s history, with the exception of the past year. As the world’s first cryptocurrency begins its journey to two billion total transactions, it continues to demonstrate its resilience and growing adoption in the cryptocurrency world.
The Bitcoin halving is a pre-programmed event that occurs approximately every four years, or more specifically every 210,000 blocks. During the halving, the reward that Bitcoin miners receive for verifying and adding new transactions to the blockchain is halved.
When Bitcoin was first introduced, the initial block reward was 50 BTC. After the first halving in 2012, it was reduced to 25 BTC. At the second halving in 2016, the reward dropped to 12.5 BTC and at the last halving in May 2020, it was further reduced to 6.25 BTC. This event essentially halves Bitcoin’s issuance rate until the final halving eliminates issuance entirely.