Bitcoin Minimum Fee Reduced by 90% – Is It Good?
The debate over whether Bitcoin is a suitable medium of exchange or a store of value has reignited, this time due to falling prices for sending the leading cryptocurrency.
Leading Bitcoin blockchain analyst Mempool reported this week that users of the world's largest cryptocurrency network can now pay as little as 0.1 satoshi per virtual byte (sat/vByte) to process their transactions. A satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, with 1 satoshi equal to 0.00000001 BTC.
Previously, miners required at least 1 satoshi/vByte to process transactions. However, due to the decrease in activity in the main cryptocurrency network, miners reduced the minimum fee by 90% to increase the number of blocks added to the blockchain.
These values concern the weight of the transaction and the speed of its processing. When the blockchain is overloaded, it becomes more expensive for miners to prioritize transactions.
This sharp drop in value indicates a drop in demand for blockchain. In other words, users began to make fewer transactions, which led to a significant decrease in fees.
The Bitcoin network is run by miners, who are mostly industrial companies located in warehouses with high-end computers that work on transactions on the network.
Miners are rewarded for processing blocks of transaction data and adding them to the blockchain. For each successfully processed block, they receive 3.125 BTC (which is about $367,000 at the current exchange rate) along with transaction fees.
However, with fewer users on the Bitcoin network to transfer funds, register ordinals (also known as NFTs), or do other things, fees remain low, resulting in less revenue for miners for each block mined.
As anonymous Bitcoin miner Econoalchemist told Decrypt , transactions with fees of 0.1 sat/vbyte have always been allowed by the protocol, but some node operators may ignore such low fees. The actions of Mempool and others this week indicate a growing consensus to accept lower fee transactions.
“Over time, the policy rules will tend to match the consensus rules, removing most of the restrictions on retransmission,” he noted.
Leading figures in the crypto and payments industries have previously expressed concern about the lack of activity on the blockchain, including Twitter founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey. The Bitcoin staunch supporter has previously said that the cryptocurrency will only succeed if it is used for its intended purpose: sending and receiving funds.
“I think if it doesn't get used in payments and doesn't find everyday use, it's just going to become irrelevant,” Dorsey said on a podcast in April.
While it is clear that Bitcoin is setting new historical records, it is succeeding, albeit for a different purpose: people are using it as an investment vehicle for savings.
“I guess time will tell, but Bitcoin seems to be turning into [a store of value] and not being used for any transactions,” Scott Norris, CEO of mining company Optiminer, told Decrypt .
He added: “As long as the price trend continues to go up, people won’t use Bitcoin for transactions. Bitcoin is essentially a digital currency: it’s very valuable, and its value continues to rise. It’s still very young, so it hasn’t peaked yet. But it’s not the best option for transactions. You need to use Bitcoin, not just own it.”
It should be noted that the sender of a cryptocurrency transaction chooses the fee: if he needs the payment to be seen and processed by miners as quickly as possible, he can increase the fee, and his payment will be added to the block faster.
I like to see transactions less than 1 sat/vbyte in my mempool.
Most of my early Bitcoin transactions were zero fee and confirmed within a couple of blocks.
I'm not a miner. I want to pay as little as possible when I'm not using LN.
— Mandrik (@Mandrik) July 17, 2025
However, some Crypto Twitter (aka X) users expressed joy at the fact that the leading blockchain has become more accessible. One user, Mandrik, wrote: “I like to see transactions in my Mempool for less than 1 sat/vbyte,” adding that he wants to “pay as little as possible.”
When someone pointed out that “transaction fees are necessary to keep the network secure,” he added, “It’s like rich liberals complaining about low
Source: cryptonews.net
