The current surge in Bitcoin transaction fees is attributed to the increased popularity of Ordinals, which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are stored directly on the blockchain.
These tokens are taking up space in the mempool, leading to increased competition for block space and higher fees for transactions to be confirmed quickly.
The most active projects minting Ordinals have changed in recent days, with BEES, gpts, and HALV being the most active minters. The increased demand for block space has resulted in a backlog of over 120,000 unconfirmed transactions in the mempool, compared to fewer than 30,000 at the beginning of October.
This has led to increased profits for Bitcoin miners, with 8.5% of their revenue coming from fees on November 6th, the largest daily percentage since early June.
It is expected that new minting projects will continue to emerge, potentially leading to further increases in fees and competition for block space.
