Bitcoin activity hits 2024 high as price falls under $65,000

Data from CryptoQuant shows the Bitcoin Network Activity Index moved above its long-term trend for the first time since mid-2024 and recently reached its highest level since late 2024, about 7% below the September 2024 peak. The increase in activity began in late March and continued for several weeks. Over the same period Bitcoin’s market price declined roughly 30% year-to-date to under $65,000 and remains more than 50% below a late-2025 record near $126,000.

Daily transaction counts topped 800,000 at points in 2026, bringing transaction levels close to the strongest readings of the 2023–2025 cycle and more than double the lows recorded in 2025. Average transactions per block also rose, indicating higher block utilization by transaction count.

The rise in activity is concentrated in very small transfers. Transactions smaller than 0.01 BTC now make up about 80% of daily transaction counts, up from roughly 44% in 2023. The smallest cohorts, including transfers below 0.001 BTC, have increased this year and are approaching their 2024 peaks. These changes mean the chain is processing more messages without moving proportionally more BTC value.

OP_RETURN outputs, which attach data to transactions without creating spendable outputs, have increased to near-record levels. CryptoQuant links the higher OP_RETURN usage to on-chain data services, including Runes, Ordinals and BRC-20-style activity. Those services generate many low-value transactions because the primary payload is attached data rather than transferred BTC.

The mempool of unconfirmed transactions rose to about 128,000, the highest level since late February 2025, with the backlog concentrated in low-fee entries. The current backlog is well below the extreme peaks recorded in September 2023 and November 2024.

Fee data compiled from Blockchain.com and YCharts put daily Bitcoin transaction fees at 3.458 BTC on June 18, down about 50% from a year earlier. Another data source shows average transaction fees near $0.27. Miner revenue remains dominated by the block subsidy established after the April 2024 halving, which reduced the subsidy to 3.125 BTC per block; at roughly 144 blocks per day the subsidy still supplies the largest share of miner income while fees contribute a smaller share in BTC terms.

Blocks are busier by transaction count, much of the growth consists of low-value, data-linked transfers, and market prices have fallen over the same period.