Bitcoin’s Mempool Dries Up Even as Prices Stay Near Record Highs, Stirring Worries Over User Engagement

Bitcoin’s on-chain activity has plummeted despite prices holding close to historic highs—a contrast that’s raising red flags among analysts about the health of the network.

Blockchain.com data reveals that the mempool—the digital queue where transactions await confirmation on the Bitcoin blockchain—is seeing remarkably low traffic.

On Saturday, the mempool held only about 5,000 transactions waiting to be processed. By press time, that number had inched up to around 15,000, still far below the 150,000 transactions logged when bitcoin first surged past $100,000 in late 2024.

Since March, mempool activity has hovered between 3,000 and 30,000 transactions, highlighting weak demand for using the Bitcoin network—even though bitcoin’s price has consistently remained above $100,000. As of this writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $108,124.52.

“Bitcoin’s mempool—the list of transactions waiting for processing—is nearly empty. The share of miner revenue coming from fees instead of new block rewards has dropped to barely a fraction of a percent,” noted Joël Valenzuela, director of marketing and business development, in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter).

Valenzuela cautioned that such a sharp drop in network use might be signaling a deeper problem:

“Basically, nearly all real users have left Bitcoin. And this is happening while prices are sitting at all-time highs!” he said, describing the situation as a potential major crisis that could bankrupt the network or shift bitcoin into a fully custodial asset controlled by governments and big institutions.

Joao Wedson, CEO and founder of crypto analytics firm Alphractal, also pointed to the emptiness of the mempool as evidence that retail traders have largely exited the market.

“When mempool transactions start climbing again, that’s one of the clearest signs retail traders are back—because it shows higher demand for actually using the network,” Wedson explained.

The stark disconnect between bitcoin’s lofty price and its sluggish on-chain activity is fueling new concerns about whether the current rally can continue without a strong return of everyday network users.