Bitcoin’s onchain activity is a ‘ghost town,’ but whales grow more dominant beneath the surface: Glassnode

Bitcoin's price may be holding firm above $100,000, but network activity is unusually quiet, with transaction counts recently reaching their lowest levels since October 2023. Much of the drop stems from a steep decline in non-monetary activity , such as Inscriptions and Runes, which inflated usage metrics last year, according to onchain analysts at Glassnode.

Transaction counts steadily climbed through 2023 and 2024, reaching a peak of 734,000 per day. However, since early 2025, network throughput has dropped significantly, with daily transactions falling to a range of 320,000 to 500,000 — marking a sharp decline from the cycle's earlier highs, the analysts said in a June 19 report .

However, despite fewer transactions overall, the average transaction size has increased significantly, suggesting that large entities, such as institutions, high-net-worth individuals, or whales, continue to use the Bitcoin base layer for high-value transfers and are becoming increasingly dominant, the analysts said.

An average of $7.5 billion is now settled on the Bitcoin blockchain per day — hitting a peak of $16 billion during the initial $100,000 all-time high price break in November. The average volume per transaction currently stands at $36,200, and transactions exceeding $100,000 now account for 89% of the total volume, up from 66% in late 2022. Conversely, transactions involving $100,000 or less have seen their share of total volume fall from 34% to just 11%, according to Glassnode's data.

Fee pressure, often used as a proxy for network demand, also remains subdued, with miner revenue from transaction fees falling to around just $500,000 per day as average transaction fees drop to some of the lowest levels in the last 18 months.

This is in stark contrast to past bull markets, where surging prices typically triggered congestion and fee spikes as demand soared, the analysts said.

Off-chain activity surges

In contrast, off-chain activity has surged, Glassnode noted, with centralized exchanges — especially futures markets — handling the majority of volume. Futures alone averaged $57 billion per day over the past year, peaking at $122 billion (compared to $10 billion per day for spot and a $23 billion peak). Combined off-chain activity for ​​spot, futures, and options now exceeds onchain volume by a factor of 7 to 16x, the analysts said.

The introduction of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 also appears to have accelerated this shift, contributing to a broader transition toward a derivatives-led market structure, they highlighted.

Meanwhile, leverage is also building across derivatives markets, with total open interest in futures and options reaching $96 billion — up from roughly $11 billion in 2020. However, the use of stablecoins rather than crypto collateral has grown markedly since the collapse of FTX — a trend that points toward a maturing derivatives ecosystem, with risk management shifting toward more stable, dollar-pegged structures, in the analysts' view.

"This transition can significantly impact how we interpret network metrics, as traditional indicators may no longer capture the full scope of market activity," they said. "Nevertheless, the onchain market remains at the heart of the Bitcoin economy, forming the foundational layer upon which the wider ecosystem operates."