Bitcoin transaction fees rise roughly 300% as NFTs take up more block space

The rise of bitcoin (BTC) ordinals NFTs has seen transaction fees rise by 300% to around $0.77, on-chain data shows.

Bitcoin fees rising as NFTs become popular

Trackers reveal that the average transaction fees on the Bitcoin network from $0.77 on Jan. 29 to $1.946 on Feb. 12. January also recorded a higher median fee price range of $0.73.

The spike coincides with the rising popularity of the Ordinals NFTs.

Ordinals project functions by assigning metadata to Satoshis. Subsequently, it maintains the uniqueness of the art and its ability to be transacted from one address to another.

This functionality came on the network following its 2017 SegWit and 2021 Taproot Upgrades. Now the NFTs have led to a two-year bitcoin high network activity. The current daily record of bitcoin network usage currently stands at 369K as of Feb 11, up from 260K recorded a year ago.

Bitcoin NFTs turning heads

Bitcoin NFTs are becoming a thing a significantly fast way. A BitMEX study shows that over 10,000 NFTs were created on the network between Dec. 14 and Feb. 7, claiming 526 megabytes of block space. In the process, 6.77 BTC was spent on Ordinals-related transactions forcing up the value of NFTs.

The creators of major NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks, have started uploading their artwork on Bitcoin even without official confirmation by Yuga Labs.

Reactions following BTC Ordinals NFTs

Although Ordinal NFTs are driving activity in the Bitcoin network, the rise of transaction fees can, as history shows, impact user experience. Bitcoin is transactional and doesn’t have smart contracting capabilities like Ethereum. As such, users can only use it to transfer value trustlessly across the globe without a third party.

Introducing these assets on the network has attracted controversy, with people reacting differently about the matter. Some users on Twitter exposed that the NFTs had been proposed more than 10 years ago.