Bitcoin's transactions per block doubled, but demand didn't come with them
Bitcoin blocks are carrying roughly twice as many transactions as they used to. The jump comes from smaller payments built on Segregated Witness, or SegWit, that take up less room. That lets more of them squeeze into each block. The network didn't get busier so much as it got better at packing.The distinction matters. Transaction count is one of the most quoted signs of Bitcoin's health. When it doubles, people tend to read it as adoption. This time, the number is mostly measuring efficiency.In October 2026, daily confirmed Bitcoin transactions averaged between 700,000 and 800,000. Back in January 2025, the average was about 372,000.Blocks ran at around 98% capacity during this period. Their average size reached approximately 1.5 MB.The average fee per transaction in late October 2026 fell to around 32 cents. Blocks were packed, and the cost of getting a spot in one was about the price of a gas station coffee refill.Microtransactions, meaning payments under 0.01 BTC, now make up about 80% of total Bitcoin network activity. These small, lightweight payments fit into blocks with plenty of room to spare, so the count goes up without much fee competition.SegWit went live on Bitcoin in August 2017. It changed how block space is measured, moving from a simple size cap to a limit of 4 million weight units.The key move was a discount on "witness" data, the signature information that proves a transaction is authorized. Under SegWit rules, that data counts for less toward the block limit than other parts of a transaction.The upgrade boosted effective throughput for transactions that take advantage of the witness discount. Crucially, it did this without raising the network's core capacity.If demand had truly doubled, you would expect a fight for block space. Full blocks with heavy competition push fees higher, as users pay up to jump the line.Instead, blocks sat near 98% full while fees dropped to around 32 cents. That combination points to more efficient use of space rather than a crowd of new users clamoring to get in.The heavy share of microtransactions reinforces the point. When about 80% of activity consists of payments under 0.01 BTC, the raw transaction count gets inflated by small-ticket items.Miners earn the block subsidy plus fees from every transaction they include. The research behind these figures points to falling miner fee revenue despite the high transaction volume. The network is processing more transactions while paying its security providers less per transaction.The block subsidy shrinks over time, so fees are expected to carry more of the load for securing the network. The research flags that constrained miner revenue may create long-term challenges for network security.For users, cheap fees on nearly full blocks mean small payments are practical on the base layer, at least under current conditions.The things to watch from here are fairly concrete. Does the microtransaction share keep climbing from about 80%? Do fees stay near 32 cents with blocks around 98% full? And does miner revenue find support elsewhere, or keep sliding as the network gets more efficient?