Bitcoin Network Block Piles up 470K Transactions; Fees Skyrockets

Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology have all the advantages and praises all around. Yet there are factors where the tech lags behind and results in inconvenience for the users. Recently, the biggest cryptocurrency blockchain network witnessed significant congestion, and hence, the transaction fees shot up.

According to the Memepool data, the Bitcoin (BTC) network is currently experiencing a backlog of mammoth-sized transactions. Around 470K BTC transactions have piled up pending and waiting for further approvals.

In a way, the number of pending transactions makes the current congestion the longest block fullness over the Bitcoin network.

However, the congestion also brings another major issue which is the rise in transaction fees. The average fee charged for carrying out the transactions shoots up as the congestion slows down the process.

Currently, the average transaction fee is around $2.332 which is slightly lower than yesterday’s $2.597. The latter amount is 122% higher than last year’s fee which was $1.047.

Previous Backlog With Massive Transaction Fees Surge

Earlier in May 2023, the Bitcoin Network fell into congestion leading to the transaction fee skyrocketing. The fee went beyond $16 on average per transaction and it saw a massive pump to hit a peak of $29 on May 9, 2023.

The frenzy of BRC-20 tokens, Bitcoin Ordinal Inscriptions, led to increased network activity and the number of transactions started piling up in abundance. The trade of Bitcoin network-based ‘non-fungible tokens’ occupied the majority of operations at the network and resulted in less space for usual transactions.

The Bitcoin Mempool acts as a temporary repository for all pending Bitcoin transactions awaiting validation by a miner and subsequent inclusion in the blockchain’s next block. It’s worth noting that every node within the Bitcoin network temporarily maintains this Mempool. This vital component ensures the orderly processing of Bitcoin transactions and is a critical aspect of how the cryptocurrency functions.

Transactions residing in the Mempool undergo regular clearing whenever a fresh block is appended to the blockchain. Nonetheless, pending transactions in the Mempool are exclusively processed and verified when they satisfy the minimum gas fee requirement.

Lower fees for Bitcoin transfers might necessitate waiting for more than a single block’s duration in the Mempool before they receive processing and confirmation. This fee mechanism plays a pivotal role in prioritizing and regulating Bitcoin transactions.

Amidst network congestion, miners typically give preference to transfer with heftier fees, causing lower-fee transactions to accumulate. This results in users seeking rapid transaction confirmations requiring to pay higher fees and ultimately inflating transaction expenses. This dynamic underscores the importance of fee selection and its impact on transfer speed and cost.