Bitcoin’s on-chain activity erupted alongside last week’s price rally, driving daily transaction fees to $6.43 million on May 23—up 51 % from the prior week and the highest tally of 2025. The jump came as BTC set a fresh record above $112 K, squeezing limited block space and forcing users to bid more aggressively for confirmation slots.

Analysts tie the congestion to a potent mix of factors: spot-ETF inflows added nearly $3 billion in new demand over the same five-day window, while ordinary traders rushed on-chain to arbitrage the move, keeping daily transaction counts near their post-Ordinals peak.

With the block subsidy now just 3.125 BTC after April 2024’s halving, higher fees are increasingly essential for miner revenue—yet they also serve as a reminder that scaling solutions like Lightning and emerging layer-2s may become more than just optional side roads as the next wave of adoption materializes.