Volatility is not just affecting Bitcoin’s price itself; it is also hitting Bitcoin fee estimates as transactions continue to be slow and expensive.
Data added to Twitter by BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp shows a giant increase in spreads of BitGo’s estimated most appropriate fee level for a Bitcoin transaction since the end of May.
The action contrasts markedly with previous data, which on a graph produces almost entirely flat lines.
Sure, bitcoin transaction fees have gone up a lot. But what's more interesting is the volatility increase in the fee estimate market. pic.twitter.com/fkiDUNT6YV
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) June 13, 2017
Volatility appears to have increased in step with transaction fees themselves. According to 21.co’s fees calculator, the “fastest and cheapest” option on Tuesday is 390 satoshis per byte, down from the previous levels of 450, which also coincides with slightly reduced estimation volatility.
Not all were convinced of the interest of the data, however, one respondent to Lopp describing the findings as “rather boring” when the number of stuck transactions is taken into account.
On that topic, the size of the Bitcoin mempool has, in fact, decreased in recent weeks, coming down from all-time highs seen mid-May.
Reductions accelerated in line with a drop in prices on Monday but have since reversed as a correction hit.