Ethereum’s Hype Returns as Bitcoin Transaction Fees Flip

Bitcoin and Ethereum Transaction Fees

The Ordinals Protocol has sparked a flurry of activity on the Bitcoin network, resulting in a reversal of the average daily transaction fees between Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum.

Data from BitInfoChart shows that on November 20th, Bitcoin had an average daily transaction fee of $10.34, while Ethereum had an average of $8.43.

Bitcoin’s fees hit a six-month high of $18.67 on November 16th, while Ethereum’s fees peaked at $7.90.

The surge in Bitcoin transaction fees is attributed to the Ordinals Protocol, a tool used to create nonfungible token (NFT)-like assets and BRC-20 tokens on Bitcoin.

Ordinals-Based Assets Uptick

Data from Dune Analytics shows that after a period of dormancy between Sept. 25 and Oct. 23, Ordinals-based assets experienced a sharp rise in activity in late October.

Since Oct. 24, over 6 million Ordinal assets have been created, resulting in more than 800 BTC in fees being redistributed to the network — a figure amounting to approximately $30 million.

The surge in Ordinals-related activity was further amplified when ORDI, the second largest BRC-20 token by market cap, was listed on crypto giant Binance on Nov. 7. This listing caused a widespread buying frenzy of BRC-20 tokens, with the price of ORDI rising more than 50% on the day.

Adding to the momentum, the Ordinals-based project Taproot Wizards announced a $7.5 million seed round on Nov. 17.