On the 20th of April, a seismic change shook the Bitcoin fabric. This transformation came in the wake of the halving occurrence, slashing rewards for miners, thus propelling transaction fees to a towering 1,257.71 BTC. This spike catapulted fees to their zenith since December 2017, engulfing more than 75% of miner earnings for that calendar day.

Simultaneously, this surge in fees syncopated with pronounced gridlock within the network, spurred in part by the induction of new mechanisms such as Runes. These advancements instigated apprehensions regarding the feasibility of utilizing Bitcoin for day-to-day dealings, particularly as median fees scaled upwards to approximately $93.

The aftermath of these developments was a never-before-seen downturn in active addresses on the network, skidding to a nadir not witnessed in the past three years on the halving day.