Despite Bitcoin trading near historic highs, on-chain activity has dropped sharply—reaching its lowest point since October 2023. According to recent data, the seven-day moving average of Bitcoin transactions fell to roughly 317,000 as of June 7, with just 256,000 transactions confirmed on June 1. This slump reflects a significant cooldown from earlier this year, when speculative activity surged due to BRC-20 and Runes token experiments.
In a striking example of how low fees have fallen, a transaction sent by Mempool founder Mononaut was recently confirmed at just 0.1 sat/vB—well below the typical 1 sat/vB relay threshold used by Bitcoin Core. The handcrafted transaction, described humorously as “artisanal,” sat idle in the mempool for over a month before being picked up by Marathon Digital’s mining pool via Slipstream, a pipeline designed to accommodate custom low-fee transactions.
With block space wide open, more miners are now sifting through the mempool to capture even substandard or below-threshold transactions, raising questions about network incentives and long-term sustainability in the post-halving environment.
What Lower On‑Chain Activity Means for Price
On-chain activity often serves as a barometer of user engagement and speculative fervor. The sustained dip in network transactions may be interpreted as waning momentum, prompting market participants to remain cautious. While Bitcoin’s price remains in the $104,000–$106,000 range, subdued network use could curtail upside in the near term. In a broader context, this weakness may point to fragile liquidity conditions across crypto and other risk assets.
The slump comes on the heels of the fading “BRC-20” and Runes token craze, which drove late‑2023 surges in network activity. With the mempool—where Bitcoin transactions queue—wide open and fees at historic lows (roughly 1 sat/vB), analysts point to a steep drop in speculative on-chain traffic as the principal cause. As the frenzy subsided, daily transaction counts retreated from highs exceeding 1.5 million in April to under 350,000 by early June.
Core Developers Defend Low-Fee Transactions
In a public statement released on June 6, a group of 31 Bitcoin Core developers voiced strong opposition to the growing trend of filtering out low-fee or non-standard transactions from the Bitcoin network. The letter, which directly addresses concerns raised by recent practices like the Slipstream pipeline, argues that excluding such transactions would violate Bitcoin’s core principle of censorship resistance.
While the developers acknowledged that unconventional uses of the blockchain—such as embedding non-financial data—may not appeal to all users, they emphasized that Bitcoin must remain neutral and open to all transaction types. “Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on,” the letter reads. Blocking transactions based solely on fee structure or content, they warned, could drive users toward private or centralized settlement options, ultimately weakening the network’s decentralization.
The open letter sparked immediate backlash within the Bitcoin community. Notably, Jan3 founder Samson Mow criticized the developers’ stance, accusing them of facilitating on-chain “spam” under the guise of neutrality.
“Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam,” Mow wrote on X.
“It’s disingenuous to just say ‘it is what it is now, too bad.’”
Quick Facts
- Bitcoin’s daily transaction volume has dropped to ~317,000—the lowest since Oct 2023.
- The decline follows a cooldown after the BRC-20/Runes-driven spike in April.
- Miner revenues are pressured as low fees combine with reduced block rewards.
- Lower on-chain activity may signal cooling sentiment across crypto markets.
