With 13.15 million ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, demand has continued to keep network transfer fees high, as the average fee to transact onchain is 0.00012 BTC or $3.54 per transaction. Moreover, since June 18, 2023, average fees on the Bitcoin blockchain have increased by more than 92%, rising from $1.84 to the current transfer cost.
Bitcoin Fees Rise While Backlog of Unconfirmed Transfers Remain
Bitcoin fees have increased by 92% over the past four days, as reported by bitinfocharts.com on June 22, 2023. According to data from bitinfocharts.com, average fees have remained above the $1 threshold since April 23, approximately 60 days ago. On May 8, the average fee reached a 2023 high of $31 per transaction. The surge in fees can be attributed to frequent financial transfers broadcasted across the chain and the influx of Ordinal inscriptions, which have resulted in an increased transfer count.
Median-sized transfer fees have also risen, and as of press time, bitinfocharts.com data shows that the median fee on-chain on June 22, 2023, is 0.000053 BTC or $1.60 per transfer. This follows a low of $0.694 per transaction recorded on June 18, indicating a surge of more than 130% in median-sized fees within four days. Furthermore, archived statistics from mempool.space indicates that there’s approximately 339,936 unconfirmed transactions as of 1:01 p.m. (ET) on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, according to mempool.space data, the current high-priority network transfer fee on-chain is $1.59 per transaction, while a medium priority fee is $1.17, a low priority fee is $0.92, and the no-priority fee stands at $0.50. Furthermore, archived metrics from June 19, 2023, reveal that in a span of three days, the capacity on the Lightning Network increased from 5,408.88 BTC to the current 5,427.05 BTC, representing a growth of 0.33%.
What are your thoughts on the rising Bitcoin network transfer fees and the number of unconfirmed transactions? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.