Since March this year, the tally has oscillated between $3,000 and $30,000, indicating anaemic demand for the network despite $BTC establishing a foothold above $100,000.
"Bitcoin's mempool (queue of transactions waiting to be processed) is almost completely empty. The percentage of miner revenue coming from fees (instead of inflation) is down to a fraction of a percent," Joël Valenzuela, director of marketing and business development, said on X.
"Simply put, almost all of Bitcoin's actual users have gone away. At all-time price highs, too!" Valenzuela added, calling the situation a major crisis where the network goes bankrupt or becomes "completely custodial asset run by governments and institutions."

$BTC's mempool. (Blockchain.com)
According to Joao Wedson, CEO and founder of crypto data analysis platform Alphractal, the idle mempool is a sign of missing retail participation in the market.
"When Mempool transactions begin to rise again, it's a clear sign that retail is back — because the growing backlog reflects increased demand for using the network," Wedson said.