The cost of sending bitcoin (BTC) on-chain is rising, with the halving expected after another 229 blocks are mined. As of April 18, 2024, about 164,000 transactions, equivalent to 220 blocks, are awaiting confirmation.

Transaction activity has increased since April 4, and since April 7, there have been consistently over 450,000 confirmed transactions daily for the past 11 days. Correspondingly, transfer fees have risen over the past 11 days, from an average of $2.86 per transaction to $9.09 three days later. By April 12, the average fee peaked at $24.39 per transaction. Currently, the average transfer fee is $19.48 per transaction or 133 satoshis per virtual byte (sats/vB). The median bitcoin fee is around $11.11 or 75.9 sats/vB, with lower-fee transactions paying about 40 sats/vB facing delays in the mempool.

The increase in Ordinal inscriptions over the past two weeks, partly due to excitement around the upcoming Runes protocol, has been attributed to the fee hike. Runes is a new standard for creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin, different from BRC20 tokens.

The transfer of Ordinal inscriptions and BRC20 tokens has significantly contributed to the rise in BTC fees this year, with expectations of further increases after the Runes launch. Even Bitcoin's testnet has seen a notable fee increase due to Runes.