- Transaction fees in Bitcoin (BTC) surged on Saturday midnight as miners spent approximately $2.4 million to get the 840,000th block.
- This occurred as a result of miners racing to acquire “epic sats” embedded on the special block.
The Race for the 840,000th Block in Bitcoin
The much-awaited Bitcoin halving was finally triggered at midnight (UTC) on April 20 to usher in the transition of the world’s prime cryptocurrency asset into its fourth epoch. This means lower rewards for miners within its ecosystem going forward, or a prize of 3.125 BTC per block in the next four years from the last cycle’s 6.25 BTC.
Except for the morning prior to the critical juncture in its economy, the halving didn’t bring in a dramatic price movement for Bitcoin. However, against the backdrop of the event was something more exciting happening within the BTC space.
During the affair, transaction fees spiked as Bitcoin mining operators competed to secure the historic 840,000th block, which served as a bridge between the outgoing and incoming cycles this year. According to mempool, the coveted block eventually fell into the hands of ViaBTC, but it didn’t come without a high gamble.
On-chain data revealed miners actually spent a whopping total of $37.67 BTC in mining fees for a chance to get the sought-after block. That’s roughly $2.4 million at the going rate of BTC on Saturday midnight, making it the highest fee paid for a single block on the Bitcoin network.
In addition to the fees, ViaBTC bagged 40.7 BTC as a bounty for the 840,000th block, or around $2.6 million.
What’s with the Fuzz?
Without hindsight, the high transaction fees may have been too impractical considering the rewards and competition in the space. However, within the 840,000th block lay the possibility of acquiring special satoshis (sats).
In a nutshell, a sat is the smallest unit of Bitcoin. Each sat is equivalent to 0.00000001 BTC. Every halving paves the way for “epic sats,” which are considered to be rare artifacts within Bitcoin that are potentially worth millions of dollars.
Runes Protocol on Bitcoin
Another milestone achieved during the halving was the advent of Runes. This is basically a new token standard on Bitcoin created by Casey Rodarmor, the person behind the Ordinals launched last year.
As of this writing at 2:00 AM UTC, there are already 3,246 Runes etched within the Bitcoin network based on RuneAlpha data. Along the line are 46,1245 transactions from 53,476 holders.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin is now trading over $65,000 with around a 2% gain on the 24-hour and seven-day charts. It is more than 4% down on the one-month frame but it’s still treading 130% higher in the one-year range.