Bitcoin’s onchain transaction count has climbed to its strongest level of 2026, a near-record pace not seen since late 2024 — yet the economic value behind those transactions tells a different story, according to a research note published by CryptoQuant last week.
Bitcoin Transactions Everyday have surpassed 800,000, more than doubling from lows recorded in 2025 and approaching the peak levels seen during the 2023–2025 bull cycle. For the first time in December 2024, the network’s index of activity has broken out above its trend. It is now only 7% off its previous high. activity Levels recorded in September 2024.
“This above-trend reading has been sustained for several weeks and marks the first positive activity regime since mid-2024, contrasting sharply with Bitcoin’s ongoing bear market price decline,” CryptoQuant wrote a note.
It’s not just the volume of transactions that is driving this surge. Cohorts of less than 0.01 BTC and less than 0.001 BTC now together account for roughly 80% of all daily Bitcoin transfers — up from around 44% in 2023. “The economic content of these transactions differs materially from prior high-activity periods,” The firm has been noted.
Bitcoins’ protocol-driven activities
CryptoQuant attributes this shift in activity to the protocol-driven nature of it: Ordinals. Runes. BRC-20 tokens. And data timestamping. These services rely on Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN, a field that is a transaction out put that lets users attach arbitrary information to a Bitcoin transaction. After a heated community debate, the OP_RETURN byte limitation was removed last year. This opened up a new world of possibilities. “Usage has spiked to near-record levels in 2026,” Described as generators, the company wrote that these protocols were written by them. “high volumes of dust-value transactions.”
This results in a growing mempool. According to FXStreet’s coverage of the note, the Bitcoin mempool expanded to around 128,000 pending transactions at the time of writing — its highest level since late February 2025, with congestion concentrated among low-fee transactions. CryptoQuant has warned about the risks of using Bitcoin. “sustained expansion could drive fee increases for time-sensitive economic transactions.”
There is a stark divergence in the price and network activity. Bitcoin currently trades at $64,700. This is down 17% in the last 30 days, and almost 50% from its record price of $126.080 set back in October 2025.
The high volume of transactions in previous cycles was correlated with the rise in prices and demand in economics. However, this time it is a reflection on protocol usage rather than an explosion in financial transfer.
For now, the network is busy — just not with the kind of activity that has historically moved the price.
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
