Bitcoin’s onchain activity has climbed to its strongest level of 2026 even as the top crypto continues to trade under bearish pressure, according to a Thursday report from CryptoQuant.
Micro-led transactions fuel Bitcoin network activity rebound
The recovery in network activity is being driven almost entirely by transaction volume rather than higher-value economic transfers.
Daily Bitcoin transactions have exceeded 800,000 in 2026, more than doubling from lows recorded in 2025. It is now approaching peak levels seen during the 2023–2025 bull cycle. Average transactions per block have also climbed sharply, indicating consistently high block utilization.
However, analysts at CryptoQuant noted that “the economic content of these transactions differs materially from prior high-activity periods.” Instead, the surge is concentrated in the smallest transaction sizes.
Transactions below 0.01 BTC now account for roughly 80% of all daily Bitcoin transfers, up from around 44% in 2023. The sub-0.001 BTC and sub-0.01 BTC categories have both surged toward their previous 2024 highs.
OP_RETURN-driven activity adds pressure to Bitcoin mempool
CryptoQuant argued that the change is commonly attributed to protocol-driven activity, involving high volume, although “transferred value per transaction is tiny.”
The report attributes much of the increase to a growing adoption of Bitcoin-native data protocols that rely on the OP_RETURN opcode, including Runes, Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens and data timestamping services.
“Usage has spiked to near-record levels in 2026,” CryptoQuant said, stating that these protocols generate large numbers of dust-value transactions, “directly explaining the low-value cohort surge.”
The increase in protocol-related activity has also led to renewed congestion on the Bitcoin network. CryptoQuant reported that the Bitcoin mempool has expanded to around 128,000 pending transactions, its highest level since late February 2025, with congestion concentrated among low-fee transactions.
While mempool congestion remains below the peaks seen in 2023 and 2024, CryptoQuant said it shows non-financial activity is taking up more of Bitcoin’s block space. The firm warned that “sustained expansion could drive fee increases for time-sensitive economic transactions.”
Bitcoin is trading at $62,990, down 2.5% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing.