Bitcoin’s on-chain network activity is experiencing a notable slowdown, even as the asset attempts to maintain its price above the $105,000 mark. Recent data from Glassnode highlights a sharp drop in daily transaction counts, pointing to the lowest network usage since late 2023.
This trend contrasts with Bitcoin’s bullish momentum, which earlier saw it cross the $111,000 mark last month, reflecting a disconnect between price action and underlying blockchain activity.
High-Value Transfers Dominate On-Chain Volume
A majority of the transaction decline stems from a decrease in non-monetary uses such as Inscriptions and Runes. These features contributed to higher on-chain traffic during the last cycle but have since waned.
Transaction throughput peaked in 2024 at over 734,000 daily transactions but has now fallen to a range between 320,000 and 500,000 per day, Glassnode reported on June 19. Despite this decline in raw transaction volume, other metrics point to shifting dynamics beneath the surface.
According to Glassnode, the decline in transaction count is accompanied by a sharp increase in average transaction size. Large holders, including institutions and high-net-worth individuals, are increasingly utilizing the Bitcoin base layer for significant value transfers.
An average of $7.5 billion is being settled daily on the Bitcoin blockchain, with a recorded peak of $16 billion during the all-time high price breakout in November 2024. Presently, the average volume per transaction sits at $36,200.
Transactions exceeding $100,000 now account for 89% of total volume, up from 66% in late 2022. Meanwhile, smaller transfers under $100,000 have shrunk to just 11% of total volume, down from 34% over the same period.
Glassnode interprets this trend as evidence of growing whale dominance on-chain, even as smaller investor activity shifts elsewhere. The firm also noted that miner revenue from transaction fees has dropped significantly, now sitting around $500,000 daily, one of the lowest levels observed in the past 18 months.
Market Activity Shifts to Off-Chain Platforms
As on-chain usage declines, trading activity has increasingly migrated to off-chain venues, particularly centralized exchanges. Glassnode notes that the futures market alone averaged $57 billion in daily volume over the past year, peaking at $122 billion.
In contrast, spot trading volumes remain considerably lower, averaging $10 billion per day with a peak at $23 billion. Collectively, off-chain activity now exceeds on-chain volume by a factor of seven to sixteen.
The introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States in early 2024 has likely contributed to this trend. Glassnode also observed that leverage across derivatives markets has expanded, with total open interest in Bitcoin futures and options reaching $96 billion, a nearly nine-fold increase from 2020 levels.
Importantly, stablecoins have increasingly replaced crypto assets as collateral, particularly following the collapse of FTX. The Glassnode analysts view this as an evolution toward a more mature risk-managed structure in crypto finance.
Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView
