Bitcoin On-chain Activity Drops Despite Strong ETF Performance

Bitcoin network activity has reached its quietest period since early 2024. Daily transactions have fallen to around 350,000 after briefly dropping to 316,000 last week.

This represents a massive decline from the peak of over 700,000 daily transactions recorded during mid-2024, when Bitcoin-based protocols were gaining significant traction.

The sharp decrease stems from reduced interest in Bitcoin-native protocols like Runes and Ordinals, which previously drove substantial network usage through token-like functionality and NFT-style inscriptions.

These applications brought Ethereum-style features to Bitcoin but have largely disappeared from mainstream attention as traders moved to other blockchain networks that offer better native support for such activities.

Transaction fees have stayed consistently below $1.50 since the beginning of 2025, showing minimal competition for block space and indicating Bitcoin has returned to its core function as a monetary transfer system.

This low-fee environment has created an unusual technical situation where some users attempt to send transactions below Bitcoin Core’s standard relay floor of 1 satoshi per virtual byte.

Mining pool MARA has responded by launching a “Slipstream” pipeline designed to process these ultra-low-fee transactions that regular Bitcoin nodes would typically reject.

This development has sparked debate within the Bitcoin development community about network standards and censorship resistance, with some arguing that filtering low-fee transactions goes against Bitcoin’s fundamental principles.

Bitcoin ETFs Continue Record-Breaking Performance

While network activity declines, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds are experiencing remarkable success. The funds have maintained an eight-day inflow streak, accumulating $2.4 billion during this period.

BlackRock’s IBIT dominates the space, attracting $278.9 million on Wednesday alone and accounting for 96% of the total eight-day inflows at $2.3 billion.

8 straight days of inflows into spot btc ETFs…

About $2.5bil.

Category has now taken in nearly $11.5bil in 2025.

Year two.

Still “no demand”.

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) June 19, 2025

The BTC ETFs have collected nearly $11.5 billion in 2025 so far, bringing their total net inflows since launching in January 2024 to $46.9 billion. Current assets under management have reached nearly $125 billion across all Bitcoin ETF products.

Market Dynamics Show Mixed Signals

BTC currently trades around $104,800, down 0.3% in the past 24 hours and 2.5% over the week. Despite positive ETF flows, the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance and geopolitical concerns continue weighing on market sentiment.

The contrast between strong institutional demand through ETFs and declining on-chain activity highlights the crypto project’s evolving role in the financial ecosystem.