According to BitMEX Research, setting up their own nodes and connecting to many peers was relatively easy, demonstrating that a tiny minority of node runners can undermine incentive-incompatible transaction relay filters (source: BitMEX Research). According to BitMEX Research, these relay filters are proving unsustainable, analogous to the economically unsustainable surplus block capacity observed from 2009 to 2015 (source: BitMEX Research). According to BitMEX Research, traders should note that practical attempts at relay-layer censorship can be bypassed, making relay policy an unreliable tool for shaping Bitcoin transaction propagation and a risk factor to monitor when evaluating on-chain activity (source: BitMEX Research).

According to @BitMEXResearch, a small group of node runners relaxed Bitcoin relay policies while Bitcoin Core later aligned with the observed network conditions, rather than originating those changes itself (source: @BitMEXResearch). The same dynamic enabled full RBF on the network, allowed sub-1 satoshi per vbyte transactions to be relayed, and led to large OP_RETURN data being propagated (source: @BitMEXResearch). @BitMEXResearch emphasizes this as a property of Bitcoin that demonstrates the practical power of individual node runners to influence relay policy, which directly determines what transactions get relayed and at what minimum fee levels (source: @BitMEXResearch).

According to BitMEX Research, a tiny minority of nodes, if operated correctly, can defeat incentive-incompatible transaction filters on Bitcoin, source: BitMEX Research on X, Oct 27, 2025. The post highlights the power of individual node runners and frames this as a positive for Bitcoin’s censorship resistance, source: BitMEX Research on X, Oct 27, 2025. The post offers no quantitative metrics or price guidance but positions node-level resilience as the core message, source: BitMEX Research on X, Oct 27, 2025.

According to @BitMEXResearch, the authors of node software implementations decide the default policy, and a small minority of node operators can loosen the effective relay policy on the network, shaping how transactions propagate across the network (Source: @BitMEXResearch on X, Oct 20, 2025). According to @BitMEXResearch, this underscores the operational influence of node runners over effective network policy enforcement and transaction relay behavior (Source: @BitMEXResearch on X, Oct 20, 2025).

According to Adam Back, it matters that node runners operate economic nodes because those nodes enforce the network's consensus rules and form an impenetrable wall of verification against hostile forks, reinforcing which transactions the network accepts as valid, source: Adam Back on X, 21 Sep 2025. According to Adam Back, node runner culture began with defending against hostile forks, emphasizing that consensus safety in Bitcoin depends on widespread verification by economic nodes during contentious periods, source: Adam Back on X, 21 Sep 2025.

According to @BitMEXResearch, a new report analyzes how Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions affect node runners’ bandwidth, storage, and operating costs, linking these dynamics to BTC fee volatility and blockspace pricing. Source: https://blog.bitmex.com/ordinals-impact-on-node-runners/ For traders, the report highlights three actionable metrics to monitor during inscription activity: mempool size, median sat/vB fee rates, and block fullness, as these directly impact execution costs and settlement latency for BTC transactions. Source: https://blog.bitmex.com/ordinals-impact-on-node-runners/ The study’s focus is directly relevant to fee-derived miner revenues versus subsidies, a mix that can influence short-term hashprice and on-chain cost environment during periods of elevated inscriptions. Source: https://blog.bitmex.com/ordinals-impact-on-node-runners/

According to @BitMEXResearch, large Ordinal-related image inscriptions are not a positive for Bitcoin and could have negative consequences by pricing out financial transactions, source: BitMEX Research on X, Sep 8, 2025. According to @BitMEXResearch, these large images may offer only a small side benefit for node runners, source: BitMEX Research on X, Sep 8, 2025. According to @BitMEXResearch, Ordinals-driven demand therefore poses a risk to financial transaction inclusion on Bitcoin, a factor relevant to on-chain trade execution and fee-sensitive strategies, source: BitMEX Research on X, Sep 8, 2025.

According to @BitMEXResearch, BRC-20 tokens are the dominant form of Bitcoin Ordinals by transaction count, with 92.5 million BRC-20 transactions compared to 2.7 million Ordinal images; Source: BitMEX Research on X, Sep 8, 2025 https://twitter.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1965190903762395536. According to @BitMEXResearch, these figures are presented in a new article titled Ordinals – Impact On Node Runners; Source: BitMEX Research on X, Sep 8, 2025 https://twitter.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1965190903762395536.

According to @gensynai, 15% of all active node runners are now part of the SWARM Discord group, indicating a significant increase in community coordination and information sharing among network participants. This development could enhance node operator collaboration, potentially leading to improved transaction throughput, network stability, and more timely updates for SWARM token holders. Close monitoring of SWARM community dynamics is recommended for traders assessing SWARM-related assets. Source: @gensynai