There were concerns on Crypto Twitter of a potential denial of service (DoS) attack on the Bitcoin network, following a spike in transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions. For the first time since 2017, the surge in demand resulted in fees of 6.76 BTC being recorded for one block, exceeding the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC on May 7. However, some Bitcoin analysts and commentators quickly pointed out that the recent congestion was due to demand rather than a premeditated attack.
Glassnode reported that the surge in activity and block space demand was attributed to the rise in Ordinals inscriptions, with a total of 75% of Bitcoin on-chain transactions using Taproot on May 7 resulting in a record high. Despite this, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, suspended Bitcoin transactions twice within the past twelve hours citing “the large volume of pending transactions.”
