Bitcoin's "digital gold" narrative may be getting stronger, as investors in the cryptocurrency are more incentivized than ever to hold rather than spend it. Making a Bitcoin transaction is now the most expensive it's ever been: the average cost of sending the cryptocurrency is now $59.87, according to the latest BitInfoCharts data. That's more expensive than the last bull run, in December 2017, when the average cost hit $55.17. In the last 10 days alone, the average transaction fee has soared by over 300% - on April 11, it was $14.86. Why? Quite simply, lots of people are using the Bitcoin network. And with more people using the network, comes costlier fees. Blockchains are distributed ledgers, secured by cryptography. They are databases that multiple people can access and read, but can only be updated by the data owners. Instead of the data residing on a single centralized server, the data is copied and stored on multiple computers. Miners use powerful computers to solve complex problems which in turn validate transactions. Miners are rewarded in Bitcoin for their work and if the network is busy (i.e. a lot of people want to move the coin around) you'll have to pay a premium to get the job done. But if you're willing to wait, you can pay lower fees - you just might be waiting a long time. Bitcoin developer Leon Johnson told Decrypt he recently paid just $2.99 by accepting a slower confirmation time.