In the Bitcoin ecosystem, transaction fees, which are the cost of sending Bitcoin, continue to cause disagreements as they rapidly increase. According to data from blockchain data analysis firm BitInfoCharts as of December 17, the average transaction fee rose to about $40. The recent Bitcoin Ordinals hype has caused transaction fees to rise for all ecosystem users, and some analysts believe this situation will be permanent.

What’s Happening in the Bitcoin Ecosystem?

According to BitInfoCharts data, the cost of sending Bitcoin on the ecosystem is just over $37 at the moment, and this cost has been noted as the highest average figure since April 2021.

Additional figures from the blockchain data analysis platform Mempool space indicate that the size of Bitcoin’s mempool, the accumulation of unconfirmed on-chain transactions, is very large. As a result, even transactions with an additional fee of $2 do not have on-chain priority. At the time of writing, approximately 350,000 transactions were waiting to be confirmed.

While daily on-chain spending within the ecosystem continues to become unaffordable for many small investors, a heated debate persists among Bitcoin advocates. While many people react to the impact of Ordinals on fees, popular Bitcoin investors see double-digit transaction costs as an important step only for the experience to come.

Noteworthy Comments from a Prominent Figure

Users who want to protect themselves in this situation need to adopt Layer-2 solutions, such as the Lightning Network, which are designed especially for mass adoption. Popular analyst Hodlonaut made the following statements via X on December 16:

“Fees are currently artificially and temporarily high due to JPEG nonsense, but it’s nothing more than a glimpse into the future. Scaling does not occur on Layer-1.”

Hodlonaut continued, arguing that demanding low fees for Level 1 transactions is not only ignorance but also feeds an attack on Bitcoin. This reflects Bitcoin’s structure as a network that gains value over time through competitive proof of work. Keeping fees low is a contradictory situation and does not determine the value, as demonstrated by hard forks of the Bitcoin network that specifically aim to offer this benefit. Referring to Bitcoin Cash, Hodlonaut stated:

“If they can’t afford to move funds within five years, why should it be critical to include someone in Layer-1 with fees under $1? Go already to Bitcoin Cash or another centralized empty dream.”