Bitcoin network update - 16 december: bitcoin slow, fees near to a new all-time-hight 🚀🚀

Very interesting day! Let's continue with our periodic update about bitcoin network situation.
I believe that it is very important not only for people who try to use bitcoin for value transferring, but it is also very important because a negative situation of bitcoin network can be a big market advantage for Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, that are the most obvious alternatives to Bitcoin.
So, here you can find an overview of BTC situation.

Ps: If you have forgotten last episodes, this is (in part) why in these days BTC is so slow. Read this article about the great bitcoin retarget that happened last week.
ANOTHER SIMILAR RETARGET IS INCOMING WITHIN TOMORROW... SO PAY ATTENTION AND, IF YOU HAVE TO MOVE YOUR BITCOIN, DO IT IMMEDIATLEY!https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@marculisse/important-do-you-want-to-transfer-bitcoin-do-it-immediatley-retarget-incoming.

Ps: Data reported here cover period from 00:01 to 23:59 UTC+1 (Central Europe Time) of 16 december

Seems that Bitcoin network is continuing to produce blocks at a good rate. We are having a Bitcoin Blocks production rate of approx. 7.17 blocks/hour in last 24 hours.
Source https://fork.lol/blocks/time
Bitcoin unconfirmed transation number is stable, around 140-145k (with average transation fee that, in 16 december, was near to 27$).
In fact the number of transations on BTC network was high, about 360K transations in 24 hours.
So bitcoin is facing a new period of mempool stoopping up, whit an increase of unconfirmed transaction. The "mempool" is the "pool" that contains all Bitcoin unconfirmed transations.
So, as a lot of transations are still unconfirmed. Here you can find all mempool data https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#24h

Because of these elements, bitcoin fees are really increasing and average transaction fee is 27.89$. It is too expensive to use Bitcoin for normal payments. Consider also that bitcoin price rally is increasing the cost of bitcoin average transaction fee, that is calculated in Bitcoin. See at https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html#3m

MARKET REVIEW
Competitors of BTC are taking advantage from this situation.
This slowdown period is likely to be a good chance for a bitcoin cash price recovery, maybe over 2000$. We are already seeing a good price increase and this trend will probably continue.
Litecoin price remains very high after some days of small drop from All-time-hight, and at this moment it is $320. Daily transactions done with litecoin are under 120K, a small decrease in comparison with the last days
Bitcoin price at the moment is growing and it is over 19000$
See at https://coinmarketcap.com

We also have to coinsider that this high price is making bitcoin network less usable (see for more informations about this https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@marculisse/in-bitcoin-rally-making-bitcoin-unusable-the-problems-of-speculative-market)

Stay turned and pay really great attention to this chaotic moment.
If you need of help or clarifications, dont hesitate to comment and ask.
Have a nice day guys!