Bitcoin Mempool Briefly Drops to Zero on Blockchain.com
Major crypto wallet service and blockchain data supplier Blockchain.com has apparently experienced a system glitch, as its Bitcoin (BTC) mempool tracker dropped to zero earlier today.
After indicating a significant surge of unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions on March 13, the mempool chart on Blockchain.com saw a steep drop from 32 megabytes (MB) to zero. As of press time, the chart has recovered to around 30 MB.
Seven-day chart of Bitcoin mempool size in bytes. Source: Blockchain.com
The crash of Bitcoin mempool was apparently a system bug exclusive to Blockchain.com, as other trackers like Satoshi.info were indicating that the size of the mempool accounted for about 35 MB during the crash of Blockchain.com’s chart.
Seven-day chart of Bitcoin mempool size in bytes. Source: Satoshi.info
Similarly to the Satoshi.info chart, the mempool size on Blockchain.com has been surging and dropping in waves over the past seven days, while the amplitude was steadily increasing by the end of the week. As the market panic has been intensifying over the week, the mempool size hit its intraweek high of 35 MB on March 13, according to data from Satoshi.info.
Trading activity on crypto markets hits new all-time high amid Bitcoin mempool surge
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Bitcoin mempool or memory pool is the holding area for all pending and unconfirmed transactions. Also referred to as the “waiting room” of the Bitcoin network, Bitcoin mempool allows users to find out how fast their transactions can be confirmed and added into blocks. For example, if the mempool size is around 3 MB then most transactions will have to wait at least one or two blocks until they get confirmed, as industry news and information portal 99bitcoins explains.
The surge of Bitcoin mempool size comes amid the increased market activity amid the FUD concerning a major Bitcoin sell-off on “Black Thursday” March 12. As reported by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin dropped to 10-month lows on that day, dipping below $5,800 threshold on that day.
On March 12, daily trading volumes of crypto markets hit a new record of $236 billion, with the figure significantly exceeding the volumes of the total market capitalization of less than $150 billion, according to data by CoinMarketCap. According to data by CoinCodex, daily crypto trading volumes account for $200 billion at press time, while the total crypto market cap amounts to $140 billion.
The all-time high (ATH) of Bitcoin mempool took place in January 2018 and accounted for 120 MB. The ATH took place just after Bitcoin price hit its ATH of $20,000 in December 2017. As of press time, Bitcoin trades at $5,100, down over 16% over the past 24 hours. Earlier on the day, BTC plunged as low as $3,916 earlier on the day, according to Coin360.