The number of transactions waiting in Bitcoin's Mempool has been thin since mid-May, a rare occurrence in bull markets.$BTC
This prolonged spell of quiet fees has led to fee rates dropping to 1 SAT/VB or less, leaving many blocks unreasonable, and rekindling long-term concerns about the health of the Bitcoin fee market.
Some reports show that the 7-day average of confirmed daily transactions fell to 317,000 in early June, levels last seen in October 2023.
Low usage on Bitcoin shows the grassroots struggle.
A look at recent blocks shows how sparse activity has become. On June 9, several blocks contained fewer than 2,000 transactions and collected barely 0.01 to 0.03 BTC in total fees. Block 900451, mined by Mara Pool, contained only 12 transactions.
Other buildings, such as Foundry USA and VIOBTC, have accepted transactions paying less than 1 SAT/VB, with some hovering near 0.01 BTC in fees. With the mempool constantly empty, miners are adding whatever they can to fill the space.
Screengrab showing Bitcoin blocks from 900446 to 900456 on June 9, 2025 (Source: Mempool)
The drop is not due to a technical issue or protocol update. It is a reflection of broader market shifts that have reduced the urgency and volume of on-chain Bitcoin transactions. Notably, the macro environment has stabilized, Bitcoin volatility has cooled, and retail trading has largely faded from this bull run.
At the same time, a wave of institutional adoption and the continued use of off-chain solutions like Lightning have pulled transaction volume away from the underlying layer.
Bitcoin remains hovering near its all-time high, trading steadily in the $100,000 to $110,000 range for weeks. However, price action lacks the volatility spikes that often drive bursts of on-chain activity.
Lower volatility translates into fewer deposit and withdrawal events, fewer panic moves, and less arbitrage, all of which reduce pressure on block space.
Price stability hasn't triggered the kind of speculative surge that has typically occurred in previous cycles. Exchange volumes have evaporated, and daily active addresses are declining, indicating that this rally is being driven less by grassroots demand and more by institutional flows.
The Institutional Era of Bitcoin
This shift is evident in Bitcoin ownership trends. Individuals held approximately 247,000 fewer BTC in early 2025 than they did a year ago, while corporations, funds, and governments increased their holdings by approximately 225,000 BTC.
The emergence of meta-ETFs and corporate treasuries means a growing share of Bitcoin is in cold storage, not moving on-chain. Retail users who sold this BTC are out of the system, and entities that bought it are not making regular transactions. This transition, from millions of small holders to a handful of large custodians, has significantly reduced the number of UTXOS hands.
Efficiency gains across the Bitcoin economy reinforce this structural focus. Dirt exchanges and custodians routinely combine hundreds of withdrawals in a single transaction. Many transactions settle on an internal ledger and never touch the blockchain.
Layer-2 solutions like the Lightning Network handle an increasing share of routine payments, especially in high-trader regions. All of these factors reduce reliance on Layer-1 confirmations.
Development-Related Speculation Falters
The speculative activity that previously fueled the blockchain has also faded. The frenzy around orders and BRC-20 tokens in 2024 led to daily transaction counts approaching one million at their peak. Blocks were consistently filled, and fees soared above 100 SAT/VB. But that hype has faded.
Inscriptions and experimental token usage have declined sharply, and no new fad has emerged to solve them. The collapse of Memcoin mining and NFT traffic has removed a major pressure point from the Mempool. The result is a free market where little is paid. With no competition for block space, users pay a minimum, sometimes even zero, to be included.
Transaction fees now represent only about 2% of miner revenue. In mid-2014, at the height of speculative activity, this share was often well above 10%. Without meaningful fee income, miners are almost entirely dependent on the 3.125 BTC block subsidy.
This dependence raises long-term concerns. The next halving in 2028 will reduce the subsidy to 1.5625 BTC. If on-chain activity doesn't recover by then, fee revenue will need to make up the difference.
Otherwise, smaller or less efficient miners could be forced offline, potentially impacting hashrate, network security, and ultimately the performance of public mining companies.
Navigating Low-Fee Environments
The current lull may be temporary, but it is already sparking a debate within the mining community about how to navigate low-fee environments. Some miners have adapted by accepting low-volume or even non-standard transactions. The Marathon Slipstream service is one such service, allowing users to bypass the Mempool and submit unusual or large-volume transactions directly to miners.
While controversial, this practice demonstrates that miners are willing to fill blocks, even when demand declines.
The low transaction count has also sparked a long-running debate about transaction migration policy. With blocks constantly shrinking and fees hovering at minimal levels, some miners have begun accepting transactions that would normally be ignored by default Bitcoin core node configurations.#CryptoCharts101