Bitcoin Mempool Dries Up: Mining Threatened, Diversification Looms

Bitcoin's mempool, the queue of pending transactions, has reached a critical low, threatening mining operations. According to Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, the mempool is now "practically empty," with a swift depletion observed on February 1, 2025. This depletion coincides with a decline in network activity, leading to several blocks being mined without being filled with transactions.

Data from Johoe's Bitcoin Mempool Statistics shows that the number of unprocessed transactions was around 250,000 as of December 2024. On that Saturday, several Bitcoin blocks went unfilled, and transaction fees approached record lows. This reduced activity may threaten profitable mining, especially after the last halving event in April 2024. In response, some large Bitcoin mining companies are considering diversifying into other businesses, such as computing for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing workloads.

Last month, the volume of transactions processed on Bitcoin's network reached an 11-month low. Block's data dashboard noted a continuation of a three-month streak of declines, with monthly transactions decreasing by 43% from the Bitcoin network's all-time high (ATH) in October 2024. The seven-day Moving Average (7 MA) of daily transactions has reached its lowest level since February 2024.

Bitcoin's price has remained relatively flat in the last 24 hours, with the coin trading at $98,838.90 after losing 3.17% in 24 hours. Despite this drawdown, the price of the coin may reclaim new local highs, drawing on trends around spot BTC ETF products. Additionally, nations are eyeing adopting the coin, creating a natural demand source for the digital currency. Among the countries mulling BTC adoption are the United States, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.