CryptoQuant data shows that Bitcoin network activity has climbed to a level only about 7% below its historical peak recorded in September 2024. The activity level has also broken above its long-term trend line for the first time since mid-2024. According to the report, the main driver of this increase is a large volume of small-value transactions, rather than traditional economic payment activity.
Small Transactions Drive Daily Bitcoin Transfers Above 800,000
Bitcoin’s daily transaction count in 2026 has exceeded 800,000, more than doubling from the 2025 low and approaching the cyclical highs seen between 2023 and 2025. CryptoQuant said the growth now has structural characteristics and should not be viewed simply as a short-term fluctuation. The composition of activity has also changed sharply: transactions below 0.01 BTC now account for about 80% of the total, far above the roughly 44% level recorded in 2023.
CryptoQuant connected this shift to OP_RETURN usage approaching historical highs. The report said protocols and services such as Runes, Ordinals, BRC-20 and data timestamping generate large numbers of low-value transactions by writing data into Bitcoin blocks. Some of those transfers are as small as 546 satoshis. Although the value of each transfer is limited, their volume has become large enough to lift Bitcoin’s overall network activity metrics.
Mempool Backlog Rises as Fund Flows Diverge
As inscription-related activity has increased, the number of pending transactions in Bitcoin’s mempool has climbed to about 128,000, the highest level since February 2025. This remains below the extreme congestion levels seen in September 2023 and November 2024. Still, CryptoQuant’s report said non-financial use cases are taking up an increasing share of Bitcoin network throughput. The report also said that if this trend continues, it may raise fees for time-sensitive economic transactions.
At the same time, the rise in on-chain activity contrasts with fund flow data. Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds recorded more than $528 million in combined net outflows. However, institutional investors still regard ETF flows as the core driver of the current cycle and maintain a baseline expectation that Bitcoin will reach $150,000 by year-end.