Bitcoin Backlog: Low-fee Transactions Cause Stuck Payments
The Bitcoin network has been experiencing a backlog of unconfirmed transactions, causing some users to worry that their payments may be lost. However, in most cases, nothing is actually lost, and there are two tools available to help resolve the issue: Replace-by-Fee (RBF) and Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).
The reason for this backlog lies in a technical change introduced in Bitcoin Core 30.0 in October 2025, which allows transactions with fees below one satoshi per vByte to be relayed. This has led to a situation where many users are stuck in the mempool due to low-fee transactions.
A recent analysis by cryptoticker.io found that 99.7% of the backlog consists of transactions below one satoshi per vByte, with only 0.3% above this threshold. This means that as long as a transaction bids above one satoshi per vByte, it is likely to be confirmed relatively quickly.
However, users should be aware that bidding too low can lead to delays, and transactions below one satoshi per vByte may not be relayed by some nodes. To determine whether a transaction is stuck or not, users can check the feerate of their transaction in a block explorer, as well as the currently recommended feerate.