03 May Bitcoin fees are skyrocketing ahead of Bitcoin halving
In brief
- The average fee for transacting on the Bitcoin network hit $2.94 on April 30th – the highest in ten months.
- Bitcoin’s mempool shows a data backlog that will take hours to clear.
- As the network becomes congested, users must pay higher fees to make it into the next block – thus driving up fees.
The average transaction fee on the Bitcoin blockchain has hit its highest level in 10 months. Data from Bitinfocharts shows that Bitcoin fees spiked to a high of $2.94 on April 30—a level not observed since July 2019.
Twenty-four hours earlier, average fees were perched around the $1.28 range. One day earlier still, the average fee was as low as $0.66. But on Thursday night, fees increased by 129% to the ten month-high.
Despite the sudden spike in the past few days, average fees on the Bitcoin network were on the rise all throughout April. From April 1st to April 30th, average fees increased by 673%.
Mempool data from Blockchain.com shows a massive backlog…