- Bitcoin hits $ 110k, but activity on the chain remains filled with low costs and thin mempool use.
- Users move to CEXS and Tron and strengthen the evolution of Bitcoin to a passive value shop.
Bitcoin [BTC] Vrap $ 110,000 on May 22, but the blockchain activity tells a different story.
Although the price of Bitcoin dominates the newspaper heads, the activity on the chains has quietly dropped to include lows, which emphasizes a gap between appreciation and actual use.
As users shift to centralized trade fairs (CEXS) and cheaper networks for daily transactions, Bitcoin-road of his role evolves as a peer-to-peer currency and solidify himself as a high-quality wealth shop.
Is this the Final confirmation That Bitcoin has become digital gold in function, not only in name?
Modest demand in a thriving market
Average transaction costs float around $ 1.50 – an anomaly in the context of earlier bull markets.
As the graph shows, earlier rallies saw in 2017, 2021 and at the end of 2023 average reimbursements above $ 60 and even beyond $ 120 due to memory pool (mempool) congestion and rising speculation on chains.
Source: Alfractaal
This cycle, the mempool remains calm with minimal tariff pressure, despite the rising price of Bitcoin.
The transactional question is not increased users retain their assets or use centralized platforms instead of moving value in the chain.
Where is the frenzy?
In former bull markets, Bitcoin’s mempool swelled with tens of thousands of unconfirmed transactions, clear signs of speculative urgency. The current cycle, despite record prices, is quieter.
Source: Alfractaal
Mempool -activity in 2025 is thin compared to the rise of 2017 and 2021, when transaction -arrears are routinely 150,000 exceeded. Nowadays, congestion is minimal, which indicates a remarkable lack of urgency among users.
Traders are increasingly put aside the basic layer of speculation and instead opt for faster, cheaper alternatives – or simply hold. The Bitcoin network itself does not reflect the hype.
Calm of success or shrinking retail?
Segwit adoption has risen since 2021, now good for the overwhelming majority of Bitcoin transactions. This shift has improved block space -efficiency, reduced costs and switched on smoother throughput.
Yet the dominance of Segwit can be today … a double -edged sword.
On the one hand, optimization – fewer bytes reflects per transaction. On the other hand, the relative absence of non-Segwit activity can indicate a decrease in casual or old users.
The current Bitcoin usage profile seems skewed in the direction of highly efficient transactions on an institutional scale, not the basic traffic that once hidden the network during the retail peaks driven by the retail trade.
Where does the activity go?
Centralized stock exchanges now process most transaction flows, while networks such as Tron Lead Retail and Stablecoin transfers – especially USDT – do to low costs and immediate finality.
In the meantime, the acceptance of the lightning network for daily peer-to-peer payments has been delayed, influenced by UX challenges and limited liquidity.
As the crypto industry evolves, users increasingly prefer centralized or highly optimized systems for routine transactions.