Bitcoin Network Record High Congestion Caused by Huge Demand for BRC-20 Tokens

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Bitcoin’s mempool had more than 400k transactions in the pipeline on Sunday as the network congestion reached a new yearly ATH. On-chain analysis indicates the Bitcoin network recorded an extremely high demand for block space fueled by the BRC-20 tokens. Created by Twitter user Domo (@domodata), the BRC-20 economy has grown to a major subsect of the Bitcoin market. 

According to Domo, there have been more than 1 million BRC-20 inscriptions, accounting for about 6 percent of all Bitcoin activity since the standard’s inception, as of April 27.

Binance Had Temporarily Closed Bitcoin Withdrawals 

Following the huge congestion on the Bitcoin network over the weekend, the largest centralized exchange by daily traded volume, Binance, temporarily closed Bitcoin withdrawals. According to market data provided by Coinglass, more than 178,518 Bitcoins have been withdrawn from Binance in the past 24 hours, leaving the exchange with about 401,007 coins.

While Binance has since resumed withdrawals as usual, popular market analyst @DaanCrypto thinks it will open a floodgate for more capital into the BRC-20 market.

According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the Binance withdrawals were affected on Sunday due to a sharp uptick in handling fees in excess of 400 BTC.

Miners Pleasure

The high Bitcoin congestion came at the expense of users but the advance of miners who made huge profits over the weekend. According to on-chain data from Glassnode, the average fee paid per block m reached 2.905 BTC, near past bull peaks.

Interestingly, Glassnode highlighted that some Bitcoin blocks recorded total fees paid of about 5.87 BTC, approaching 94 percent of the 6.25 block reward.