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

What happened

Bitcoin blocks now carry about twice as many transactions as before, helped by smaller SegWit payments that take up less room. October 2026 daily confirmed transactions averaged 700,000 to 800,000, versus about 372,000 in January 2025.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

Transaction count is often read as a sign of adoption, so a doubling looks like growth. Here it mostly shows better packing of data, not more users. Investors could mistake efficiency for real demand and misjudge Bitcoin's actual usage.

Analyst inference

Blocks ran near 98% capacity with average size around 1.5 MB, yet fees fell to about 32 cents. Microtransactions under 0.01 BTC made up roughly 80% of activity, so cheap small payments filled space without fee competition.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Watch whether daily confirmed transactions stay between 700,000 and 800,000, and whether the average fee per transaction stays near 32 cents as blocks run close to full. Confirmed
2. Watch for signs of genuine new demand, such as fee competition returning or block space filling from larger payments rather than small SegWit transactions that simply pack more efficiently. Proposed
3. Watch whether rising transaction counts keep getting read as adoption, because that framing can distort how investors value Bitcoin: more packed small payments lift counts without adding fee revenue. Analyst inference

Affected assets

• BTC — Bitcoin

Evidence

• cryptobriefing.com