On the evening of December 24 2023 some notable milestones were achieved by the Bitcoin BTC -1.24% network. Firstly it set a record with a 723,459 confirmed Bitcoin transactions in a single day surpassing the previous high of 710,579 transactions on November 19 2023 by an increase of 12,880 transactions.
The surge, in activity was mainly driven by inscriptions which accounted for 439,505 verifications and made up about 60.75% of all transactions that day. This indicates a shift in the nature of Bitcoin transactions when compared to financial transfers.
Secondly the total hashrate of the Bitcoin network reached an all time high on December 24th at a rate of 546 exahash per second (EH/s) surpassing its rate of 538 EH/s from the previous day. Since January 1st there has been an increase in hashrate by 311 EH/s.
However this rise in hashrate has put pressure on miners due to higher operational costs and reduced profitability. The profitability measured by hash price dropped to $0.09 per terahash per second per day representing a decrease of around 34% from its peak in December.
This decline is attributed to pressure on fees within Bitcoins mempools and a backlog of transactions leading to increased costs, for both miners and users.