The number of unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions hits a new high of over 150,000, and Bitcoin users are close to being angry

Not only did the price of Bitcoin break records, the Bitcoin network transaction queue (memory pool) also broke its historical high on May 5. The Bitcoin network has about 155,000 transactions waiting to be confirmed, and more than 85BTC in transaction fees are waiting to be settled.

The number of unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin network hits a new all-time high of 150,000

The last time the Bitcoin network memory pool was full and broke a record was on February 22, when more than 100,000 transactions were unconfirmed. This record was surpassed on Friday, when the number of unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin network exceeded 150,000, according to statistics from Blockchain.info, Statoshi.info and Tradeblock.

Of course, the massive backlog of Bitcoin transactions has been widely discussed on forums and social media. Many people are complaining about the long wait time for transaction confirmation. One Bitcoin user wrote:

“I have 5+ unconfirmed transactions and have been waiting for 3 days. This is ridiculous. And I have set electrum’s dynamic transaction fee of 140%.”

Meanwhile, some suspect the Bitcoin network is suffering from a spam attack, while others speculate that the transaction backlog is related to the recent surge in Bitcoin prices because people are making more transactions. A spam attack is when an extremely large number of small transactions are sent to the network that pay very low fees or have a large input/byte per transaction.

Number of unconfirmed transactions on May 5

Transaction volume and fees increased

As the memory pool fills up, average transaction fees are also rising. Users now need to pay $1-1.50 for each transaction made using their wallet.

According to data from Blockchair, median and average Bitcoin transaction fees have grown to $1.51 over the past three months.

According to 21Inc’s fee calculator, the fastest and cheapest transaction currently costs 280 satoshis per byte. Additionally, for a medium transaction of 226 bytes, the fee currently averages 63,280 satoshis or $0.98 (based on the price at press time).

Bitcoin broke a bunch of records in 2017

A lot of people have been using Bitcoin lately, and the number of mempool transactions has been skyrocketing over the past 30 days. Bitcoin transaction volume has also been high over the past month, reaching $1 billion in the past 24 hours. The number of transactions per day has reached about 250,000-300,000, and the Bitcoin network has been operating at full capacity during the recent price surge.

It’s safe to say that Bitcoin broke a ton of records in 2017. However, some of the Bitcoin protocol’s permanent achievements can be viewed as positive, while others are negative. For example, the record for the number of unconfirmed transactions set on May 5 is a negative record that will be recorded in Bitcoin history.

Records broken by Bitcoin:

1. Bitcoin daily transactions: 250-300,000

2. Bitcoin price: $1,620

3. Bitcoin 24-hour trading volume: $1 billion

4. Bitcoin market cap: $26 billion

5. Bitcoin transaction fee: $1-1.5

6. Bitcoin market share: 56.4% new low

7. Number of unconfirmed transactions: 150,000+

8. Bitcoin network computing power: 3,766,142,357 GH/s