Justin Drake and other observers stated that Bitcoin’s fee revenue has consistently failed to rise in line with diminishing block rewards, challenging the belief that transaction fees would eventually replace subsidie

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Drake further debunked the presumption that Bitcoin fees will increase, noting that this has not happened in the last 13 years. He added that all previous attempts to boost Bitcoin fees by increasing its utility as a transaction layer have failed to achieve sustainable long-term gains, with projects such as Ordinals, Liquid, Omni, Babylon, and others only creating short-term spikes.

Historically, the Bitcoin community believed that transaction fees would rise as block rewards decreased, ensuring miners stayed motivated to maintain network security. But data shows the opposite. Over the past decade, transaction fees have declined even faster than block rewards.