The Bitcoin network has reached a historic milestone of one billion transactions, 15 years after its launch by Satoshi Nakamoto.
An important milestone for Bitcoin
The billionth transaction was mined in block 842,241 on May 5, 2024, at 21:34 UTC. This means that, on average, 178,475 transactions have been carried out daily on the Bitcoin network since its inception. The achievement of this milestone demonstrates the robustness and resilience of the Bitcoin network, as well as its ability to handle an increasing volume of transactions over time.
The impact of the Lightning Network
However, this figure does not include transactions carried out on the Lightning network, a Bitcoin Layer 2 primarily focused on micropayments. According to data from the River exchange, the Lightning network alone processed an estimated minimum of 6.6 million transactions in August 2023, suggesting that hundreds of millions of transactions have been carried out on Lightning since its launch in January 2018.
Record demand for halving
The daily number of Bitcoin transactions peaked around the network’s fourth halving on April 20, 2024, reaching a record 926,000 transactions on April 23. This increased demand was largely attributed to the launch of the Runes protocol, a new Bitcoin token standard, at block 840,000.
Comparison with Ethereum
Although Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency network, it’s not the first to reach one billion transactions. Its biggest rival, Ethereum, has already surpassed 2 billion transactions since its launch in July 2015, according to data from Etherscan.
