Bitcoin's onchain network fees are starting to rise again, with the average fee for a transaction reaching $11.48, as a backlog of 207 mempool blocks and 134,000 unconfirmed transactions remains as of November 3, 2023.
After a brief period of decreasing onchain network fees, bitcoin sending fees have begun to rise once again, reaching a midweek average of 73.3 satoshis per virtual byte (sats/vB) or $11.48 for each transaction.
Bitcoin Onchain Fees Start Rising Again
From February 18 to February 25, 2024, the average cost of onchain transactions on the Bitcoin network was below the $5 threshold, and during this period, fees for medium-sized transactions did not exceed $2 per transaction.
On Wednesday, the average fee increased to 73.3 sat/vB or $11.48 per transaction, and the average fee reached 39 sat/vB or $6.10 per transaction. This indicates that average costs jumped 129.6% and average costs increased 204.99% within four days.
Although Ordinal inscription is ongoing, the pace has been decreasing since the beginning of the year, leading to a marginal decline in the daily transaction confirmation rate. Since the beginning of February 2024, the daily tally of transactions confirmed by miners has not exceeded 430,000.
The combined impact of bitcoin's strengthening value and rising onchain fees has increased miners' profits. The price of bitcoin hash, or the estimated revenue from 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of computing power per day, is close to breaking the $110 mark.
Despite the increase in BTC prices, miners generated the same level of income as in January 2024, despite earning slightly less from transaction fees. In addition, since the beginning of February, the capacity contained in the Lightning Network has shown a downward trend.
What do you think about the latest onchain fee increases on the Bitcoin network? Share your thoughts and opinions on this in the comments section below.
