Since its inception on January 3, 2009, Bitcoin has been growing steadily. Recently, according to statistics, the Bitcoin network has processed its 1 billionth transaction, which means that this revolutionary cryptocurrency network has opened a new milestone. Let’s take a look at this impressive achievement.
According to data from the Bitcoin Dashboard, the billionth transaction occurred at 9:34 pm UTC on May 5, 2024, and was packaged in block 842241. In the 5,603 days since Bitcoin was born, it has processed an average of 178,475 transactions per day. This number does not include the vast number of micropayment transactions that occur on the Lightning Network.
As the second layer expansion solution of Bitcoin, the Lightning Network focuses on small payment scenarios. In August 2023 alone, it processed at least 6.6 million transactions. It can be seen that since its launch in January 2018, the transaction volume on the Lightning Network has likely reached hundreds of millions.
It is worth mentioning that before and after Bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 20, 2024, network transaction volume showed a significant growth trend. On April 23, the Bitcoin network set a new record of 926,000 transactions in a single day. This is mainly due to the launch of the Runes protocol at block 840000, which is an emerging Bitcoin token standard.
Despite this, Bitcoin remains an active network. According to the latest data, Bitcoin’s daily transaction volume has remained at a high level of 660,260 transactions since May 4.
As the originator of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s handling of one billion transactions is a milestone worth remembering. But it’s not the first blockchain network to achieve this feat. As Bitcoin’s biggest competitor, Ethereum’s transaction volume has exceeded 2 billion since its launch in July 2015.
Overall, Bitcoin transaction volume exceeded one billion, once again proving the strong vitality of this decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. I believe that Bitcoin will still play an important role in more fields in the future, let us wait and see!
