Bitcoin transactions trail off after September surge

• Daily transaction count on the Bitcoin network has fallen to its lowest level since May.
• Despite the drop in user activity, the average transaction fee continues to climb. 

After a surge in September, the number of daily transactions on the Bitcoin [BTC] network has been on a downward trend since the start of October, according to information retrieved from The Block Data.

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The daily transactions count on the network observed on a seven-day moving average showed that the average number of weekly transactions completed on the network ranged from 400,000 to 500,000 between May and mid-September. 

By 20 September, the chain recorded a daily transactions count of 595,110, its highest since 16 May. 

After attaining this peak, BTC began to see a steady decline in transaction count. As of 9 October, only 284,000 transactions were completed on the network. This represented a 52% drop from the 20 September peak and an 11% month-to-date (MTD) decline. 

Source: The Block

Some Ws and some Ls

An assessment of BTC’s on-chain performance since the month started revealed a general decline in user activity. In addition to a drop in the daily transaction count, the network has also seen a decrease in its number of active daily addresses since the month started. 

This rallied steadily in September to reach a daily high of 1.11 million unique addresses on 15 September, its highest daily count in over a year. 

However, this has since declined, and by 9 October, the chain recorded less than 950,000 active addresses. 

Source: The Block

Moreover, the number of unique addresses involved in first-time transactions involving BTC on the network has also witnessed a dip.

Information sourced from The Block Data showed that this also surged in September to peak at 648,000 new addresses on 19 September. It has since declined by 37%. 

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A decline in a network’s daily active address signals less demand for its native coin, which can impact its price. Since BTC’s price rallied above $28,000 to briefly exchange hands at $28,400 on 2 October, it has since traded below $27,600, data from CoinMarketCap showed. 

Interestingly, despite the waning user activity on the network, the average transaction fee has risen steadily since the month began. At $2.83 as of this writing, the average cost of executing transactions on the BTC network has increased by 19% since 30 September. 

Source: The Block