Bitcoin Fees Fall 95% As BTC Price Recovers From US Government Scare

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to recover from fresh losses on May 11, as a false alarm over US government sales spooked markets.

Analysts deny US government’s BTC sale

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circulating $27,400 at the time of writing.

The pair had seen a flash sale the previous day, shorting it at $26,850 after claims that confiscated BTC held by the US government was being sold.

This was later disproved, but for already sensitive crypto markets, the damage was done.

Among traders, Jackis described the local lows as a “fraud” move, while predicting lower levels to come.

“When the move feels like a scam and the trade feels like a scam, treat it as such,” he tweeted.

“I expect a lower breakdown sooner or later. I’m not yet sure how deep, but prepared to act quickly if necessary.”

Fellow trader Anbessa also confirmed that he was on the lookout for further downside, as were several others focusing on a target zone around the $25,000 mark.

Financial commentator Tedtalksmacro, meanwhile, called May 10 “just another day in crypto.”

In a Twitter summary of today’s events, he added that US inflation data had delivered for bulls with risk assets, suggesting ongoing declines over the next few months.

Next block Bitcoin fee drops below $2

As a result for Bitcoiners, the last 24 hours have seen a big shift in transaction fees on the chain, these deflating significantly after reaching levels that had caused widespread commotion.

Related: Binance ‘FUD’ Meets CPI – 5 Things to Know in Bitcoin This Week

Live numbers from Mempool.space had the next block fee of 47 satoshis per byte at the time of writing, or just $1.80.

According to data from monitoring resource BitInfoCharts, even as of May 10, the average fee had fallen below $15 – a drop of over 50% compared to the previous day.

Checkmate, lead chain analyst at Glassnode, responded to the task those who had asked for code-changing measures to prevent fees from rising so much in the future.

As Cointelegraph reported, fees had risen as a result of ordinal subscriptions that greatly increased activity on the chain and demand for block space.

“24 hours later, average fees paid per block have returned to ~1.0$ BTC per block. Imagine arguing to change the Bitcoin rules for a short-term fee increase due to people using the chain in ways you don’t agree with,” tweeted next to a diagram.

“Trying to change the rules is the attack, not the inscriptions.”

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.