Glassnode Analyzes Drop in Bitcoin On-Chain Activity Amid Market Shifts

The decline in the daily transaction volume on the network of the leading cryptocurrency is largely attributed to the drop in non-financial operations and the increasing dominance of major players, as concluded by Glassnode analysts.

Throughout 2023-2024, the number of on-chain transactions per day exhibited an upward trend, hitting a peak of 734,000 in November. However, after the beginning of 2025, this figure plummeted to between 320,000 and 500,000, coming close to the low levels seen in October 2023.

Despite this drop in transactions, the daily value being transferred remains at historically high levels, averaging $7.5 billion.

Experts believe this indicates that the decrease in transaction counts on the blockchain is linked to the waning excitement surrounding assets created using witness data from Taproot and OP_Return fields, as well as Rune tokens.

Glassnode also highlighted that the number of financial transactions has stayed relatively stable, though their average dollar value has risen to $36,200. The share of transactions over $100,000 has increased from 66% in November 2022 to 80% currently.

In contrast, in December 2022, transactions below $100,000 represented 34% of the total volume, which has since dropped to 11%.

“This trend reinforces the notion that high-value participants are becoming increasingly dominant in on-chain activities,” the analysts pointed out.

A significant portion of Bitcoin’s economy has shifted off-chain, as noted by Glassnode. In the spot trading segment, this movement is facilitated by centralized exchanges. Over the past year, the average daily trading volume on such exchanges was approximately $10 billion, peaking at $23 billion in November; however, these operations often do not involve transferring assets on the blockchain.

Furthermore, trading activity in futures contracts and options, as well as the use of leverage, has surged in the current cycle.

According to analysts, the off-chain market volume for Bitcoin regularly exceeds the cumulative on-chain activity by 7 to 16 times.

Glassnode experts acknowledged that these trends have placed pressure on miners’ commission revenues. The share of network fees in miners’ income has already fallen below 1%. In June, the average daily revenue was $530,000.

It’s worth noting that following the latest difficulty adjustment, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty decreased by only 0.45% from its all-time high (ATH), continuing to exert pressure on miners’ profitability.