Bitcoin Innovation Stalls as Transaction Volume Collapses

Bitcoin‘s much-hyped “evolution” appears to have stalled, with network activity crashing to 18-month lows and remaining 50% below last year’s peaks.

The current 350,000 daily transaction average exposes the fleeting nature of protocol experiments like Runes and Ordinals, which failed to sustain meaningful usage despite initial excitement.

The dramatic decline suggests Bitcoin’s attempt to compete with more flexible blockchain platforms has largely failed, with users and developers returning to chains better suited for financial applications. Persistently low sub-$1.50 fees and the emergence of below-minimum-fee transactions paint a picture of a network struggling to maintain relevance beyond its original store-of-value thesis.

This downturn raises fundamental questions about Bitcoin’s ability to evolve beyond its original design parameters in an increasingly competitive cryptocurrency landscape.