Inscriptions have been a significant buyer of Bitcoin blockspace since their introduction in Feb 2023. In this edition, we explore whether inscriptions are displacing monetary transfers, and how the increase in fees has impacted miner profitability.

Executive Summary
Inscriptions act as a form of buyer of last resort for cheap blockspace, and appear to be sensitive to the absolute fee paid.
Inscriptions are best thought of as a sort of 'packing filler' which is stuffed into any remaining space once the higher value monetary transfers are packed into blocks.
Analysis of fees and volume need to consider that there can be a higher perception of 'value' assigned to the inscriptions beyond the BTC volume being transferred and held.
Despite a meaningful uptick in fee revenue for miners, the halving event is likely to put many of them into extreme income stress unless BTC prices increase meaningfully.

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