Bitcoin Hits 1 Billion Transactions

The Bitcoin network has successfully completed its billionth transaction, signifying a significant milestone for the network, achieved 15 years since its inception. 

Clark Moody’s Bitcoin dashboard indicates that transaction number 1,000,000,000 was recorded, mined into block 842,241 at 9:34 pm UTC on May 5, according to other available data.

This milestone arrives 15 years, four months, and four days after Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), mined the network’s inaugural block on January 3, 2009. On average, this translates to approximately 178,475 daily transactions throughout Bitcoin’s existence spanning 5,603 days.

Yet, the transaction count does not encompass those conducted on the Lightning Network, a secondary layer of the Bitcoin network mainly targeting microtransactions. 

According to data from the Bitcoin-exclusive exchange River, the Lightning Network handled an estimated minimum of 6.6 million transactions in August 2023 alone. This data implies that Lightning Network transactions may have amounted to hundreds of millions since its inception in January 2018. 

Daily transactions on Bitcoin surged during the network’s fourth halving event on April 20, reaching a peak of 926,000 transactions processed on April 23.

A significant portion of this demand arose following the introduction of the Runes protocol, a novel Bitcoin token standard, initiated at block 840,000. However, Bitcoin’s daily transaction volume has subsided to 660,260 as of May 4.

Although Bitcoin stands as the oldest cryptocurrency network, it’s not the inaugural one to achieve one billion transactions. Ethereum, its primary competitor, has facilitated more than 2 billion transactions since its inception in July 2015, as per Etherscan data.

Bitcoin is currently priced just north of $64,000/USD as of writing, with all-time-highs in sights.