Bitcoin Transaction Fees are Dropping to $1, Can This be Sustained Long-Term?

Over the past few days, bitcoin transaction fees have dropped to around $1 for median-size payments, even though the bitcoin mempool size has remained relatively high at above 120 million bytes.

$1 Fees
Widely utilized bitcoin wallet platforms like Blockchain are recommending a fee of 55 satoshis per byte, which round up to just above $1 for median-size transactions. Previously, merely one month ago, bitcoin transactions increased to $30 for median-size transactions, particularly on non-Segregated Witness (SegWit) wallet platforms and exchanges.

Given that SegWit can further decrease transaction fees by 35 percent as cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger explained, if leading companies such as Coinbase and Blockchain integrate SegWit, transaction fees for normal bitcoin payments could fall below $1.

Recently, Coinbase, one of the most valuable cryptocurrency company in the sector along with Bitmain and Binance, was heavily criticized for struggling to implement SegWit and transaction batching. Several analysts went as far as to claim that Coinbase is contributing significantly to the congestion of the Bitcoin network.

In response, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the company will soon adopt SegWit and transaction batching to ensure that users enjoy lower transaction fees and a seamless experience in transacting with bitcoin.