Concern over a potential Denial of Service (DoS) “attack” on the network was expressed on Crypto Twitter over the weekend due to a sudden increase in Bitcoin transaction fees of $28,376 and unconfirmed transactions. 

A few Bitcoin analysts and commentators have already allayed these anxieties among their followers. According to BitInfoCharts, the average transaction fee for Bitcoin is currently $19.20, or 0.00068 BTC. The backlog of transactions at the time of writing, according to Mempool Space, was 459,341.

Even the total fees per block temporarily exceeded the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC on May 7 due to the network’s increased demand. The 6.25 BTC fixed block subsidy for the proof-of-work mining algorithm is reduced by half every four years. However, this number may be exceeded in the uncommon event that blocks space demand spikes, leading to higher transaction fees.

According to business analysts, this is the first instance of it since 2017. One block had fees of 6.76 Bitcoin, and block 788695 had fee of 6.7 Bitcoin. The Mempool Space Explorer reveals that activity has since moderated somewhat and that fees have once more dropped below the block reward. Processing the following block is anticipated to cost 4.51 BTC in fees.

The increase in Ordinals inscriptions has been blamed for the surge in activity and the demand for block space. On May 7, Taproot was used in a record-breaking 75% of all Bitcoin on-chain transactions, according to analytics company Glassnode.

According to some on Crypto Twitter, the recent congestion may have been caused by a DoS (denial of service) attack on the Bitcoin network. Analysts specializing in Bitcoin quickly noted that demand was to blame rather than a planned attack. Bitcoin mempool finally sees some use, and the maxis are framing it as a DoS attack on the network, “0xfoobar” informed his 130,000 followers. The most straightforward scenarios, such as “Bitcoin becomes popular, and people are willing to pay to use it,” have not even been considered by them.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, suspended Bitcoin transactions again on May 8 due to “the large volume of pending transactions.” In the previous 12 hours, Binance has suspended BTC transactions twice.