According to CoinDesk: Owing to the rising popularity of Bitcoin NFTs called Ordinals, the fees on the Bitcoin network have spiked to over $37. This is the highest surge since April 2021. This increase in transaction fees has presented publicly listed bitcoin miners with significantly heightened profits.
Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees' average price soared beyond $37 on Sunday, a price peak last recorded in the bull market's zenith in April 2021. This marked an increase from the average of $1-$2 observed in September and early October.
The resurgence of Ordinals, which enables users to store non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin blockchain, known as inscriptions, has been a primary driver of this surge. Between Friday and Sunday, users created over 1.2 million new Ordinals inscriptions, leading to network congestion with nearly 300,000 transactions awaiting approval.
While Ordinals have elicited heated debates within the Bitcoin community, with some terming them as "spam," they have created a significant opportunity for BTC miners. Miners, who earn BTC for processing blockchain transactions, now earn about $63 million in daily income from fees, nearly four times the two-year average, based on a report by 10x Research.
Markus Thielen, head of research at Matrixport and 10x Research's analyst, noted that Bitcoin mining stocks have been performing well despite the range-bound Bitcoin prices. Bitcoin mining stocks such as Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platform (RIOT), and Cleanspark (CLSK) have rallied 15%-40% in December, outperforming the BTC price increase of 7% during the same period.