Analysis: Bitcoin Transactions at 10-Month High While Fees at 2-Year Low

These figures indicate that factors such as scaling improvements to the Bitcoin protocol, and the relatively modest price of bitcoin, have made transactions in the cryptocurrency extremely affordable.

At 300,000 transactions per day, Bitcoin is reaching new highs with users across the globe taking to the platform.

Using LocalBitcoins data as a proxy, growth in transactions by weekly fiat to bitcoin trades have exploded in South America, Eastern Europe, and Africa-especially in places with unstable or unreliable currencies.

Transaction fees are at a two year low, both in absolute and fiat terms.

In absolute terms, the cost in bitcoin for use of the network has trended down, even with the increased volume.

These decreases are attributable to improvements in the Bitcoin protocol such as SegWit in August of 2017, and the release of off-chain scaling such as the Lightning Network in December of 2017.Fee Comparison.

Looking at these costs alone, in absolute terms Bitcoin is more than three times cheaper for small transactions, and far more cost-effective for large transactions.

The cost of converting bitcoin to fiat still remains quite costly for many businesses.

For reference, Coinbase charges retail customers a 2 to 2.5 percent transactions fee when the spread is included, in addition to a flat fee of $1 to $3. This does not even factor in bitcoin price volatility.

Bitcoin may also have a high risk of theft in a brick-and-mortar setting, but this data is not yet available.