[Apr 2026]Mempool empty, Consolidate your small inputs @0.28 sat/vbyte

[LoyceV]

Bump: 0.15 sat/vbyte transactions are being confirmed in recent blocks.

Make that 0.15 sat/vbyte one block from the tip:

I can't remember ever seeing fees down to 0.001 BTC per block in this overview. Most of it is still data spam and data spam consolidations.

[stwenhao]

Most of it is still data spam and data spam consolidations.

It doesn't surprise me at all. If fees will be too low, then users will use them to push transactions, which they otherwise wouldn't push on-chain.

For example: if free transactions would be allowed, and displayed by many block explorers, then we would see constantly filled mempools with around 300 MB of data, or other maximum value, accepted by a given node.

Also, there is one important aspect in all of that: "relayed" doesn't mean "confirmed". Even if some transaction at 0.1 sat/vB is "relayed", then it can be constantly broadcasted and dropped every two weeks, before actually landing in a block. A good example is how long you had to wait to sweep 40 satoshis:

Deposit confirmed: 2025-09-12 08:21:47
Coins moved again: 2025-10-12 08:51:31

See? A month between getting some dust, and spending it at 0.21 sat/vB.

And, like it was with 1 sat/vB: using just 1.01 sat/vB, or even 1.02 sat/vB, was quite profitable, when a lot of people were stuck at exactly 1.00 sat/vB. The same can be true here: if we will finally reach 0.1 sat/vB in practice, then still: using 0.101 sat/vB, or 0.102 sat/vB may be a better idea, if there will be a wall of 100 MB or 200 MB of transactions with minimal fees.

[LoyceV]

Most of it is still data spam and data spam consolidations.

It doesn't surprise me at all. If fees will be too low, then users will use them to push transactions, which they otherwise wouldn't push on-chain.

In the past few years, even when fees were much higher, the majority (about 80%) of all blockspace was filled with data spam most of the time. As long as it's profitable for the spammers, they don't care about the cost.

[LoyceV]

Bump: 0.15 sat/vbyte is on the table again I'll test to see how long my 0.153 sat/vbyte transaction takes to confirm.

Update: it confirmed in less than 2 hours. I paid only 27 sats for a transaction with 2 inputs and 1 output.

[Pmalek]

Bump: 0.15 sat/vbyte is on the table again I'll test to see how long my 0.153 sat/vbyte transaction takes to confirm.

Update: it confirmed in less than 2 hours. I paid only 27 sats for a transaction with 2 inputs and 1 output.

Even transactions paying 0.14 sat/vByte have been confirmed in several blocks mined in the last 24 hours and perhaps even before that. According to the data on mempool.space, transactions paying 0.14 sat/vByte are only two or three blocks away right now. It's been a long time since I have seen such a great opportunity to consolidate inputs as in the last couple of days. Too bad that I already did mine in the past.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Bump: 0.15 sat/vbyte is on the table again I'll test to see how long my 0.153 sat/vbyte transaction takes to confirm.

Update: it confirmed in less than 2 hours. I paid only 27 sats for a transaction with 2 inputs and 1 output.

That’s crazy, I haven’t moved any Bitcoin since October. It wasn’t long ago that even 1 sat/vbyte seemed a dream.
The price of Bitcoin has been disappointing, to me at least but you can’t deny that nothing else beats it. Where else could you move $5bn across the world on a Sunday night for less than $200 fee?

[BlackHatCoiner]

In less than five blocks from now, the mempool is emptied after years. Expect the usual "network is doomed" narrative again.

[philipma1957]

In less than five blocks from now, the mempool is emptied after years. Expect the usual "network is doomed" narrative again.

we got as low as 260 tx in the entire mempool which pretty much is amazing.

or simply a lot of off chain movements.

[LoyceV]

Bump: 0.11 sat/vbyte transactions have been confirmed in recent blocks.

[Pmalek]

Transaction fees could increase in the next few days due to bad weather conditions in the US. There are ice storms and heavy winds in Texas that have caused power outages. Several sources have already reported that some mining operations have shut down due to a loss of power. It seems to already have an impact on the average block time. Let's see how long this will last.

[LoyceV]

There are ice storms and heavy winds in Texas that have caused power outages.

I was indeed wondering already why the Difficulty Estimator shows only 83% of expected blocks have been mined recently. In a way it's beautiful: using the cheapest power for mining means excess power generating capacity can switch to powering cities when calamities strike.

We're still only 1 block away from 0.13 sat/vbyte being confirmed, and only a few blocks away from 0.11 sat/vbyte "Runes" spam filling entire blocks.

[LoyceV]

In a few hours, the difficulty will drop 11%. At the moment, 0.14 sat/vbyte is possible, and 0.12 sat/vbyte is only a few blocks away.

[LoyceV]

The latest block included many transactions paying 0.10 sat/vbyte. At this moment, mempool.space shows only 2 blocks worth of transactions "waiting". So the entire mempool is almost empty, up to the lowest possible transaction fees.

[stompix]

We had a near miss previously, we needed just one more fast block



3 days to go, pace is 114%, right now as we speak 191 blocks ahead of time!
It will be empty if not this afternoon, tommorow early morning GMT time it will hit zero!

Let's see how many morons will try to inscribe a full block at these prices!

[LoyceV]

Bump: transactions paying 0.11 sat/vbyte got confirmed in the last block

[LoyceV]

April bump: 0.15 sat/vbyte is enough for a very reasonable confirmation time.

[LoyceV]

Most blocks are now full with transactions paying 1 sat/vbyte or more, but once in a while there's some space left for lower fees. It's good to see the competition is now working under 1 sat/vbyte too: fees are slowly rising, without increasing a lot. This block had transactions paying 0.28 sat/vbyte, and about 5 blocks into the future fees will still be 0.25 sat/vbyte.

[NotATether]

I have been wondering... these low fees are great, but is the transaction volume the same, or much lower than when we had high fees?

I would be worried that people are for some reason not using Bitcoin as much this cycle, and rather sticking with some altcoins, if usage is very down.

[satscraper]

I have been wondering... these low fees are great, but is the transaction volume the same, or much lower than when we had high fees?

The mean transaction volume is almost the same, so there’s no collapse, although some spikes are visible during 2024–2026.

So in my view, this shows that the main factor influencing the daily transaction count is the fixed blockspace rather than the fee level. During periods of high fees some transactions remained in the mempool for many days before being confirmed. Now there is almost no congestion.

[ABCbits]

I have been wondering... these low fees are great, but is the transaction volume the same, or much lower than when we had high fees?

I would be worried that people are for some reason not using Bitcoin as much this cycle, and rather sticking with some altcoins, if usage is very down.

It's lower than high fees back in 2021, but actually better compared with high fees back in 2023 (due to ordinal hype).

I have been wondering... these low fees are great, but is the transaction volume the same, or much lower than when we had high fees?

The mean transaction volume is almost the same, so there’s no collapse, although some spikes are visible during 2024–2026.

So in my view, this shows that the main factor influencing the daily transaction count is the fixed blockspace rather than the fee level. During periods of high fees some transactions remained in the mempool for many days before being confirmed. Now there is almost no congestion.

I expect the chart would be different thing it it exclude ordinals, runes and other TX that only add arbitrary data.