Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees have skyrocketed recently as the Bitcoin network gets congested. According to data shared by BitInfoCharts, fees paid by BTC users surged to the highest point since May 2021. One of the main reasons behind the recent fee increase is BRC-20 meme coins.
Bitcoin Transaction Fees Skyrocket
Bitcoin users are now struggling to transfer BTC as they were used in the past. Fees have recently skyrocketed due to an increase in block demand from users that are minting BRC-20. The hype in meme coins and other Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) was initially an issue for Ethereum (ETH) but not for Bitcoin, but things seem to be changing.
There are currently more than 170k transactions in the queue (unconfirmed) according to mempool. This is something that is linked to the fact that only the transactions with the highest fees get prioritized. Those that are sent with low fees will get stuck until a miner decides to pick them.
This is causing a general problem in the Bitcoin network and ecosystem. For example, Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world blocked withdrawals for a few hours.
To prevent a similar recurrence in the future, our fees have been adjusted. We will continue to monitor on-chain activity and adjust accordingly if needed.
Our team has also been working on enabling BTC Lightning Network withdrawals, which will help in such situations.
— Binance (@binance) May 8, 2023
Binance wrote on Twitter:
“To prevent a similar recurrence in the future, our fees have been adjusted. We will continue to monitor on-chain activity and adjust accordingly if needed.”
Another thing that is worth mentioning is related to the fact that this increase in fees will mostly affect people that process small transactions or that can’t afford higher fees.
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