Bitcoin network activity has climbed to within 7% of its September 2024 record, and for the first time since mid-2024 it has moved above its long-term trend, according to a CryptoQuant report dated June 18, 2026. The jump is being driven less by economic payments than by a wave of sub-0.01 BTC microtransactions.
CryptoQuant said its Network Activity Index has risen steadily since January 2026 and has reached its highest level since late 2024. The indicator has remained above trend for several weeks in a green-shaded zone that began in late March, marking the first positive activity regime since mid-2024. This has happened while Bitcoin has traded near $62,000 during what the report described as one of the deepest demand contractions of the current cycle.
Daily transaction count moves above 800,000
Total daily Bitcoin transactions have pushed past 800,000 in 2026, more than doubling from the lows seen in 2025 and moving close to the peak readings of the 2023–2025 cycle. Average transactions per block have also increased. CryptoQuant said the persistence of both metrics points to a structural shift rather than a brief spike.
The composition of activity is what sets this period apart. Nearly all of the increase has come from the lowest-value cohorts, with transfers below 0.001 BTC and below 0.01 BTC now making up roughly 80% of daily transactions, compared with about 44% in 2023. That suggests network usage is rising sharply even as the economic weight of those transactions remains concentrated at the bottom end.
OP_RETURN demand rises with Runes and Ordinals traffic
The shift lines up with a near-record increase in OP_RETURN usage, the output type that inscription protocols use to write arbitrary data into Bitcoin blocks. CryptoQuant linked the rise mainly to Runes, which move fungible tokens through OP_RETURN outputs, while Ordinals, BRC-20, and data timestamping services have also added to the load.
These systems generate large volumes of dust-value transfers, in some cases as small as 546 satoshis, matching the expansion in the lowest-value transaction bands. The same traffic has also reopened a governance dispute. According to the report, an Ordinals developer floated the idea of forking Bitcoin Core over efforts to restrict OP_RETURN data and non-financial transactions.
Mempool backlog reaches 128,000 transactions
The microtransaction wave has pushed the Bitcoin mempool transaction count to 128,000, the highest level since late February 2025. The backlog is concentrated in low-fee cohorts that fit the profile of OP_RETURN-heavy and micro-transfer activity. Current levels remain well below the extreme peaks seen in September 2023 and November 2024, but the reading still shows that non-financial uses are taking up a growing share of Bitcoin throughput.
CryptoQuant said that if activity at these levels continues, fees could rise for time-sensitive economic transactions competing for block space. That on-chain expansion contrasts with the capital picture: spot Bitcoin and Ether funds recorded more than $528 million in net outflows on June 1, while institutional desks are still framing the cycle through fund flows rather than on-chain volume. The report also noted that $150,000 remains a year-end base-case target in that view, tied to ETF demand.