- The average Bitcoin transaction cost is presently $19.20 (or 0.00068 BTC).
- The increase of Ordinals inscriptions has been blamed for the sudden uptick in activity.
Fears of a Denial of Service (DoS) “attack” on the Bitcoin network were voiced on Crypto Twitter over the weekend due to a dramatic increase in transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions. In response to these concerns, several Bitcoin experts and pundits have sought to reassure their individual communities.
According to BitInfoCharts, the average Bitcoin transaction cost is presently $19.20 (or 0.00068 BTC). Meanwhile, Mempool Space reports that there are now 459,341 pending transactions.
The number of unconfirmed #bitcoin transactions has reached a new all time high of 485,000.
The average cost to send a bitcoin has jumped to $19.20.
Pictures of frogs and penises have rendered BTC useless for microtransactions.
Bitcoin maxis: This is finepic.twitter.com/4XJujbAEID
— Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) May 8, 2023
As a result of the surge in users, the total fees per block have already surpassed the May 7 block subsidy incentive of 6.25 BTC. A fixed block subsidy of 6.25 BTC is used in the proof-of-work mining process; this subsidy is halved every four years.
Fees Expected to Lower
However, this number may be surpassed in the very unlikely event that demand for block space increases, leading to greater transaction costs. According to market researchers, this hasn’t occurred since 2017. One block had costs of 6.76 BTC, while the fees for block 788695 were 6.7 BTC.
According to the Mempool Space explorer, things have calmed down a little since then, with fees once again falling below the block reward. The transaction fees for the next block are forecast to amount to 4.51 BTC.
The increase of Ordinals inscriptions has been blamed for the sudden uptick in activity and the need for more block space. Seventy-five percent of Bitcoin on-chain transactions utilized Taproot on May 7, an all-time high, according to data analytics firm Glassnode. Bitcoin is now trading at $27,906, down 4% as per CMC.