Bitcoin mempools clear as transaction count hits 11-month low

Pools of unprocessed transactions on the Bitcoin network plummeted on Saturday amid declines in activity on the network, leading several blocks to be mined before they were fully filled with transactions. 

In January, Bitcoin's network reached an 11-month low of transactions processed, continuing a three-month streak of declines, according to The Block's data dashboard. Monthly transactions are down over 43% from the network's all-time high monthly transaction count, achieved in Oct. 2024. 

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Daily transactions appeared to spike in the days leading up to President Trump's inauguration for a second term, before declining again. The seven-day moving average of daily transactions is also at its lowest level since Feb. 2024. 

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With the decline in activity, Bitcoin has nearly cleared its backlog of unprocessed transactions, which numbered around 250,000 in late December 2024 according to Johoe's Bitcoin Mempool Statistics. On Saturday, several Bitcoin blocks went unfilled as mempools, which are distinct for every node, cleared out and transaction fees approached record lows.

The reduced activity threatens to make profitable mining trickier, especially in the wake of last year's halving event. Several large Bitcoin mining firms are exploring diversifying their businesses into providing compute for AI and high-performance computing workloads. 

Bitcoin's price has stayed largely flat over the past 24 hours, hovering around $101,500, according to The Block's Bitcoin Price Page.