Bitcoin transaction fees have surged again. On Dec. 6, 2023, bitinfocharts.com reported that the average cost of a bitcoin transaction soared to $27.55. Presently, the average transaction fee hovers around $13.93, alongside a growing backlog of unconfirmed transactions, currently at 249,000 at the time of this report.
Rising Backlog Drives Sharp Increase in Bitcoin Transaction Fees
The Bitcoin mempool, which logs unconfirmed transactions awaiting miner verification, currently has 249,000 transactions pending verification. This rise in unconfirmed transactions coincides with an increase in Ordinal inscriptions, which consume block space along with financial transactions. As of now, 287 blocks or 493 megabytes of block space must be cleared to reduce the backlog.
Daily, Ordinal inscriptions are consuming over 50% of transactions, with the tally as of today reaching 47.77 million inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Although transaction fees briefly fell to between $5 and $7 per transfer around Nov. 26 until Dec. 2, they skyrocketed in the following week. By Dec. 6, the average onchain fee had jumped to $27.55 per transaction, and the median fee rose to $17.70.
Currently, the average fee stands at 0.00033 BTC or $13.93, while the median fee is 0.00025 BTC or $10.75 per transaction. On Dec. 13, Glassnode’s lead onchain analyst, known as “Checkmate,” commented on the full mempool and the discontent it has caused among some Bitcoin users. Checkmate noted that inscriptions, primarily small text files, make up about 50% of daily transactions but less than 10% of block data size.
Despite this, the analyst said that they significantly contribute to transaction fees, accounting for 20% to 40% of the total. These inscriptions benefit from the Segregated Witness (Segwit) discount, making them more space-efficient in Bitcoin blocks, as Checkmate highlighted. The analyst’s key point was that inscriptions boost value and fee efficiency within the existing block size, thereby aiding the Bitcoin network.
“Your opposition is purely ideological and subjective. Fortunately, Bitcoin has a set of consensus rules which are objective and do not respond to our feelings or subjective values,” concluded the analyst.
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