Bitcoin transactions below 0.01 BTC (currently worth about $630) now make up about 80% of all daily transactions, up from about 44% in 2023, driving a sharp increase in network activity despite ongoing price weakness, according to CryptoQuant.

"The transaction surge is concentrated almost entirely in the lowest value cohorts, with sub-0.01 BTC transaction share at ~80% of daily counts," Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said in a report. He said this pattern is typical of protocol-driven activity, where transaction volumes are high, but the amount of bitcoin transferred is relatively small.

The increase in microtransactions is linked to growing use of the OP_RETURN opcode, which allows data to be written to the Bitcoin blockchain without creating spendable outputs, according to Moreno. Usage has climbed to near-record levels this year, driven mainly by Runes, Ordinals, BRC-20 activity, and data timestamping services, Moreno said. These protocols generate large numbers of very small transactions, some as low as 546 satoshis (currently worth about $0.35), directly contributing to the increase in low-value transfers, he added.

The rise in microtransactions has also pushed the bitcoin mempool, the queue of unconfirmed bitcoin transactions waiting to be added to the blockchain, to its highest transaction count since late February 2025, reaching 128,000 transactions, Moreno noted. He said congestion remains concentrated in low-fee transactions and is still well below the peaks seen in September 2023 and November 2024. However, if non-financial onchain activity continues to expand, it could increase competition for block space and raise fees for time-sensitive economic transactions, he added.

Overall, CryptoQuant's Bitcoin Network Activity Index has risen steadily since January and reached its highest level since late 2024. The index broke above its long-term trend in late March for the first time since mid-2024 and has remained there for several weeks, even as bitcoin prices continued to move lower, Moreno noted. Network activity is now only about 7% below its all-time high reached in September 2024, he said.

The increase is being driven by a surge in transaction counts rather than higher-value transfers. Total daily bitcoin transactions have climbed above 800,000 this year, near the highs of the 2023-2025 bull cycle and more than double the lows seen in 2025, Moreno said. Mean transactions per block have also remained near record levels for several weeks, suggesting the increase is structural rather than temporary, he added.