Recent data illustrates a notable shift in Bitcoin’s active addresses and transaction count, prompting curiosity about the underlying reasons for this change.

Bitcoin’s Active Addresses and Transaction Count Trends

According to a recent report by Glassnode, Bitcoin’s network has experienced a disparity in key activity-related metrics, particularly in Active Addresses and Transaction Count.

Active Addresses reflect the unique number of addresses engaging in transaction activities on the blockchain daily, akin to the network’s active user count.

The graph below demonstrates the fluctuation in Bitcoin’s Active Addresses metric over the last decade.

In contrast, the Transaction Count metric tracks the total number of transfers occurring on the network daily, as showcased in the following chart.

While Active Addresses have demonstrated a decline, the Transaction Count has surged, reaching near all-time highs, indicating that though fewer addresses are active, individual transaction volumes have increased significantly.

An intriguing correlation has been observed between the dwindling Active Addresses pattern and the Transaction Count share of Bitcoin Inscriptions, hinting at a potential explanation for this trend.

The Impact of Runes Protocol on Bitcoin Activity

The decline in the popularity of Bitcoin Inscriptions aligns with the advent of the Runes protocol, introduced during the fourth Halving, which enables the creation of fungible tokens on the network through a distinct mechanism.

The Runes protocol, employing address reuse, has hastened the divergence between Active Addresses and Transaction Count, elucidating the trend shift further.

Bitcoin Price Update

Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $69,600, reflecting a slight decrease of over 2% in the past week.