Cryptocurrency Market News: Bitcoin Halving Steadies Price, Network Transaction Fees Spike

investopedia.com:

The fourth bitcoin (BTC) halving event occurred Friday evening without much immediate effect on its price, though by Monday the cryptocurrency was trading higher at above $66,000. A sudden spike in Bitcoin network transaction fees around the halving was observed and that was credited to the launch of Runes, a new meta protocol for issuing tokens on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Outside of the halving, the low fees associated with Grayscale's new spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) offering, the Bitcoin Mini Trust, were disclosed. Additionally, the crypto world experienced the first conviction in a case involving market manipulation.

The bitcoin halving event was much anticipated and closely watched by investors and miners alike.
Halvings are significant because they reduce by half the rate at which new bitcoins are generated and rewarded to bitcoin miners roughly every 10 minutes. This most recent halving reduced the block reward to 3.125 bitcoins per block.

While there were no immediate price swings for bitcoin, there was a sudden jump in transaction fees on the network. The halving block was mined by mining pool ViaBTC. Notably, the miner earned more than 40 bitcoins in block subsidy and fees from this single block—significantly more than the average reward preceding the halving. This was due to a massive spike in transaction fees, possibly due to higher demand to be included in this historic block and a new development.

The Runes protocol, launched around the time of halving, led to higher fees on the Bitcoin network because it introduced a system in which participants could mint digital tokens directly on Bitcoin's blockchain. This new capability sparked intense competition among users to register unique