Bitcoin miners experienced a surge in transaction fee revenue in May, reaching a level not seen in over two years. The share of mining revenue from transaction fees rose to 14.3% as of May 29, an increase of over 11% from April.

This sudden jump is attributed to the growth of Ordinals, a method of creating on-chain artworks tied to satoshis, the smallest unit of account on the bitcoin network. Bitcoin has become the second-most voluminous network for NFTs in recent weeks, after Ethereum, and transaction traffic on bitcoin hit an all-time monthly high in May, reaching 14.9 million. Overall monthly mining revenue is at its highest level since last May, nearing $840 million.