Bitcoin's transactions per block doubled, but demand didn't come with them

Bitcoin blocks are carrying roughly twice as many transactions as they used to. The jump comes from smaller payments built on Segregated Witness, or SegWit, that take up less room. That lets more of them squeeze into each block. The network didn't get busier so much as it got better at packing.

The distinction matters. Transaction count is one of the most quoted signs of Bitcoin's health. When it doubles, people tend to read it as adoption. This time, the number is mostly measuring efficiency.

In October 2026, daily confirmed Bitcoin transactions averaged between 700,000 and 800,000. Back in January 2025, the average was about 372,000.

Blocks ran at around 98% capacity during this period. Their average size reached approximately 1.5 MB.

The average fee per transaction in late October 2026 fell to around 32 cents. Blocks were packed, and the cost of getting a spot in one was about the price of a gas station coffee refill.

Microtransactions, meaning payments under 0.01 BTC, now make up about 80% of total Bitcoin network activity. These small, lightweight payments fit into blocks with plenty of room to spare, so the count goes up without much fee competition.

SegWit went live on Bitcoin in August 2017. It changed how block space is measured, moving from a simple size cap to a limit of 4 million weight units.