Bitcoin activity rises as BTC trades about 50% below peak

CryptoQuant data show Bitcoin network activity has climbed to levels not seen since late 2024 while the token trades roughly 50% below its all-time high. Total and daily average transaction counts have risen since January 2026 and recently sat about 7% below the record activity recorded in September 2024. CryptoQuant wrote that “this above-trend reading has been sustained for several weeks and marks the first positive activity regime since mid-2024,” after a contraction that began in December 2024.

Transactions of less than 0.01 BTC and less than 0.001 BTC have each increased and together represent roughly 80% of daily transactions, up from 44% in 2023. The firm noted that “the economic content of these transactions differs materially from prior high-activity periods,” meaning counts are up while the value moved per transfer is lower.

The increase in low-value transfers correlates with heavier use of the OP_RETURN output field, which allows data to be attached to Bitcoin transactions. The field’s byte limit was removed last year. CryptoQuant reported OP_RETURN usage has spiked to near-record levels in 2026, pointing to Bitcoin-based nonfungible tokens, time-stamping services and other data attachments as sources of many small, dust-value transactions. “These protocols generate high volumes of dust-value transactions, directly explaining the low-value cohort surge,” the firm wrote.

Price data show Bitcoin’s all-time high stands at $126,080. BTC recently traded near $63,865 and was down about 17% over the prior 30 days. Transaction counts have risen even as market prices remain lower than 2021–2024 peaks.

Corporate credit and preferred-share products tied to Bitcoin experienced sharp declines this week. Strive’s preferred equity and a digital credit instrument from another large treasury firm fell in a single day. Matt Cole, chief executive of Strive, attributed the steep drops to leveraged liquidations and defended the underlying credit quality of the instruments.

Chain metrics indicate the current rise in transaction counts is driven by a larger share of tiny transfers and increased OP_RETURN activity rather than a return of large-value transfers. The removal of the OP_RETURN byte limit last year and the uptick in protocol-level uses on-chain are the primary factors cited for the higher transaction counts.