Over the weekend, The Bitcoin network’s mempool – the memory pool of pending transactions waiting for validation from a node before being committed to a block on the blockchain – reached over 450,000. 

Binance said they “did not anticipate the recent surge in BTC network gas fees,” according to a tweet by the company. To remedy the issue, Binance bolstered pending BTC withdrawal transactions with a higher fee so they would get picked up faster by mining pools. 

The congestion is believed to be due to the surge in what are known as BRC-20 transactions. These transactions launched in March of this year and are an experimental fungible token saved on the Bitcoin base chain. In essence, the token standard is a way to attribute tokens to satoshis (small amounts of Bitcoin) and allow them to move from one user to another. 

BRC-20 transactions can enable the trading of “memecoins” which are crypto coins based on an internet meme that attract enthusiastic users to buy and sell. The recent hype around coins like PEPE drove Bitcoin transaction fees to jump about 400% from late April, the highest point in two years. The PEPE token rallied over 600% over a seven day period. 

The demand on the network forced the total fees per block to exceed the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC, going as high as 6.76 BTC in one case. In addition to the Bitcoin blockchain, the gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain hit an aggregate amount of over roughly £15m. The highest level since May 2022 according to Crypto Fees. 

Recommended

• Digital Growth Grant | Barclays Eagle Labs Hosts Glasgow Launch Event
• Digital Wellness Day: Over 10 Million Brits Lack Basic Digital Skills
• Alleged Leaked Doc Suggests Google Falling Behind in AI Race

The block subsidy is awarded to a miner when they successfully validate a new block on the blockchain. In rare instances when demand surges, the figure can be exceeded. This is the first time it has happened since 2017. 

Going forward, Binance said it has adjusted its fees, and will continue to monitor on-chain activity to be able to adjust accordingly when needed.