- Since the beginning of December, the average commission on the Bitcoin network has increased significantly.
- This happened against the backdrop of a new round of increased demand for “inscriptions”.
- An increase in activity can be seen in some other networks.
On December 17, 2023, the average commission on the Bitcoin network reached $37.58, according to BitInfoCharts. This is a new high for April 2021.
A similar situation has already happened – in April-May 2023. At that time, in the wake of the popularization of “inscriptions,” the average commission reached $19.
Then the demand for Bitcoin NFTs fell, but began to grow again in the fall of 2023. From August to November, the average commission increased by 2000%.
According to the Mempool portal, at the time of writing there are 286,609 transactions in the Bitcoin network in queue. At the same time, transfers with a commission of up to $2 do not have priority at all.
Probably, a new jump in commissions occurred due to the high demand for “inscriptions”. Both the number of these tokens and the volume of commissions show a steady upward trend:
Total number of tokens based on the Ordinals protocol and the amount of commissions paid. Source: Dune. 
Impact of “inscriptions” on other networks
Due to tokens in this category, activity in some other networks has increased sharply. First of all, these are Avalanche and TON. In the latter case, the increase in demand for “inscriptions” led to a long-term disruption of the blockchain.
Previously, we covered the downtime of the Arbitrum One network, which was also caused by tokens based on Ordinals. More details at the link.