According to ChainCatcher, CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno said that transactions below 0.01 BTC currently account for about 80% of the Bitcoin network’s total daily transaction volume. This is significantly higher than the roughly 44% level recorded in 2023, indicating that smaller transfers now represent a much larger share of Bitcoin network activity.
Moreno said the increase is mainly driven by OP_RETURN-based on-chain data protocols, including Runes, Ordinals, BRC-20 and data timestamping services. These protocols generate a large number of small transactions, with some transfers as low as 546 satoshis, or about $0.35, which has continued to push up the number of low-value transfers on the network.
In addition, the Bitcoin network activity index has continued to rise since January this year and has now reached its highest level since the end of 2024. Moreno’s comments connect the growing share of transactions below 0.01 BTC with changes in Bitcoin’s on-chain transaction structure linked to data protocols.