OKX has confirmed the testing of a new program on the Bitcoin network, resulting in a significant increase in the average transaction fee to over $50 per transfer.
Data from mempool.space showed that the average transaction fee on the Bitcoin network reached up to $52 on Friday, requiring more than 5.4 BTC (approximately $400,000) in fees to be paid to miners to process a single block on the network. The surge in transaction fees was attributed to crypto exchange OKX.
Following inquiries about the sudden spike in transaction fees, OKX’s Chinese account quickly responded on X, admitting that the exchange was indeed responsible for the abnormal increase. They explained that OKX had been conducting a “collection program” test, which has now been halted.
At present, the exact method used by OKX to impact Bitcoin’s network fee structure significantly remains unclear. Web3 analyst @1999_eth has suggested that the exchange may have implemented a faulty script. Regardless of the cause, the incident has had a widespread impact on the network, with over 330,000 transactions currently stuck.
Bitcoin network congestion typically rises during periods of high transaction volume or significant events in the crypto market. For example, during Bitcoin’s surge to $20,000 in 2017, the number of unconfirmed transactions in the mempool rose to around 180,000, resulting in delays of several days for users awaiting transaction confirmation.