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Bitcoin Data GuideBitcoin Reference

Network Stories · Congestion

The 2023 Inscription Wave

From early 2023 a growing share of block space was spent carrying data rather than payments. Fees rose, blocks filled, and the question of what a block is for returned to the centre of the discussion.
Written by
The Bitcoin Data Guide editorial team
Reviewed by
Protocol review desk
Dates
Published 2026-09-21 · Last reviewed 2026-09-21

Fact

A measurable share of block space was used for data-carrying transactions, and fees rose with it.

Forecast

Whether that use should be discouraged is a policy position, not a finding of the record.

What the record shows

A block has a weight budget, and every transaction spends part of it. A transaction that carries a large witness payload spends more of the budget than a simple payment, so a block filled with such transactions holds fewer payments than one filled with ordinary spends.

From early 2023 the share of block space used by data-carrying transactions rose, and the fee market responded: as the queue grew, the fee needed for inclusion rose, and total fees paid to miners climbed. The effect was visible in the block record as a change in the mix of transactions and in the fee totals.

The mechanism that made the payloads practical is the witness discount introduced with Segregated Witness and extended by Taproot. Witness data is charged at a lower weight than the rest of a transaction, so a large witness payload costs less block space than the same number of bytes in the base transaction would.

Timeline

  1. Early 2023Data-carrying transactions begin to take a visible share of block space.
  2. 2023Fee totals and the clearing price for inclusion rise as the queue grows.
  3. 2024The pattern continues alongside the fourth halving, keeping fee revenue in focus as the subsidy falls.

What the record does not settle

The measurement is not in dispute: block space was used, and fees rose. Whether that use is desirable is a question about what the network should be for, and the chain does not answer it. This page reports the effect and leaves the argument where it belongs.

The ordinals reference explains the inscription mechanism, and the block size and weight page covers the budget these transactions spend.

Sources

Bitcoin block explorer — recent blocks
Block weights, fee totals and the transaction mix in blocks during the period.
BIP 341 — Taproot
The witness version that made larger witness payloads practical and is used by inscription transactions.