Bitcoin Activity Nears Record Highs Amid Microtransaction Growth
BITmarkets Team
Jun 20, 2026
According to a report published Thursday by blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, the increase has pushed its Bitcoin Network Activity Index back into positive territory for the first time since 2024. Microtransactions accounted for around 44% of all Bitcoin transactions in 2023, but that share has nearly doubled over the past few years. The growth has been largely fueled by Ordinals, Runes and other protocols that store data directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, noted that continued expansion in non-financial blockchain activity could create greater competition for block space and potentially increase transaction costs for traditional Bitcoin users. “The economic value of these transactions is, however, disproportionately small,” Moreno wrote.
Ordinals and Runes continue to increase network congestion
Although network congestion remains below previous peaks, Bitcoin is once again experiencing elevated transaction activity driven by inscription-based protocols. The blockchain saw major spikes in congestion during 2023 when Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens gained popularity, creating competition for block space alongside standard Bitcoin transfers. Another wave of activity followed in late 2024 after the introduction of the Runes protocol.
CryptoQuant's report highlighted that Runes, Ordinals, BRC-20 assets and blockchain timestamping services are generating significant numbers of low-value transactions. These activities are largely responsible for the rapid increase in microtransaction volume across the network.
OP_RETURN usage reaches near-record levels
One of the key contributors to the trend has been the growing use of OP_RETURN, a Bitcoin function that allows users to store data directly on the blockchain without creating spendable outputs. OP_RETURN usage has climbed close to all-time highs in 2026. The feature became a topic of debate within the Bitcoin community last year after Bitcoin Core developers removed the long-standing 80-byte relay limit, a move critics argued could encourage non-financial uses of the network.
“The OP_RETURN opcode embeds up to 100,000 bytes of data onchain without creating spendable outputs, making it the standard mechanism for Bitcoin data-layer protocols,” Moreno wrote. These protocols often create large volumes of dust transactions, some containing as little as 546 satoshis, helping explain the sharp increase in low-value transaction activity.
The growing demand for block space has also affected Bitcoin’s mempool, which currently holds roughly 128,000 unconfirmed transactions. This marks the highest transaction backlog recorded since February 2025, highlighting the continued impact of inscription-related activity on the network.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-activity-nears-record-highs-on-microtransaction-surge
https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/bitcoin-inscriptions-and-ordinals
