A surge in microtransactions has become the main driver of growth in bitcoin network activity. The share of transfers under 0.01 BTC has risen to about 80% of the daily number of transactions, CryptoQuant reported.

For comparison, in 2023 the figure was about 44%.

"The total number of transactions per day and per quarter has approached all-time highs. However, the economic value of these operations is disproportionately small," — analysts noted.

The use of the OP_RETURN code has risen to record levels. Researchers linked the dynamics to the popularity of bitcoin-based fungible tokens, Ordinals inscriptions, and data-recording services.

The increase in the number of microtransactions and OP_RETURN led to the number of operations in the mempool of the first cryptocurrency's network reaching its highest level since the end of February 2025 — 128,000. At the same time, the congestion is concentrated in low-fee groups.

"Sustained growth of non-financial activity on the blockchain may intensify competition for block space and raise fees for economic transactions," — CryptoQuant added.

Recall that in April Ethereum recorded a record divergence between the asset's market price and the network's fundamental metrics.

Source: ForkLog