Congestion Woes Ease on Bitcoin Network
The long queue of transactions is finally starting to subside as bitcoin miners have started catching up with some of the backlog. As we three days ago, Bitcoin.com News noted the beginning of the congestion-clearing process, with unconfirmed transactions dropping from over 500,000 on May 7 to just above 300,000 on Thursday, May 11.
According to mempool.io statistics, high-priority transactions were priced at $3 per transfer, while low-priority transactions cost $2.23 per transfer at that time. on May 14 show that onchain fees have significantly subsided on the Bitcoin blockchain over the past three days. Just a few days ago, a high-priority transaction would have cost $3, but today, that fee has dropped to $0.83.
A medium-priority transfer is now priced at $0.79, while a low-priority transaction can cost around $0.75. This is a significant improvement, with high-priority onchain fees sliding by 72.33% over the past 72 hours. Additionally, the number of unconfirmed transactions stuck in the queue has reduced to 263,406, which is just above half of what it held on May 7.
Lightning Network Capacity and Channels Drop
On May 9, the number of transactions was around , which means that 36.28% of the backlog has been cleared in the past five days. While fees skyrocketed to roughly $30 per transaction on May 7 and have been quite volatile lately, the did not improve. In fact, the number of locked into the Lightning Network dropped from 5,463 on May 5 to today’s capacity of 5,415 on May 14.
The dip indicates that roughly $1.28 million in value left the Lightning Network amid the transaction backlog chaos. On May 8, the Lightning Network boasted unique channels. However, that number has since decreased to the current unique channels. According to mempool.space’s Lightning Network metrics, roughly 5,057 in capacity is on clearnet, while 253 of capacity is using Tor. The remaining Lightning Network capacity is identified as “other.”
What are your thoughts on the recent developments in the Bitcoin network and the Lightning Network’s capacity? Share your insights in the comments section below.
Source: Bitcoin
