Daily Bitcoin transaction fees have plummeted by over 80% since April, with nearly 15% of blocks now being mined with minimal or no fees. This benefits users but raises concerns about miners’ revenue and the network’s long-term security model. As block rewards decrease, fees become more crucial, but onchain activity has slowed significantly.

Bitcoin’s fee market is elastic, rising with demand and falling when activity slows. However, with decreased demand, miners may lack sufficient incentive to secure the network. Alternative layer 1s like Solana and rising Bitcoin ETFs have shifted volume offchain, impacting fee generation. BTCfi, Bitcoin-native DeFi, offers hope for increasing onchain activity and fee revenue.

Bitcoin is transitioning from digital gold to a financial primitive, evolving beyond a store of value into a programmable component within financial systems. Infrastructure improvements and the growth of Bitcoin-native DeFi are transforming Bitcoin’s role in the financial ecosystem. This shift marks a significant change in Bitcoin’s utility and potential.

Read more at Cointelegraph: Can BTCfi Keep Miners Secure?