On January 29, 2026, Bitcoin has shown signs of underperformance as a payments network. The 30-day average daily confirmed payments on the Bitcoin blockchain reached 748,368, marking the lowest level since mid-July. Amidst comparisons with traditional precious metals, Bitcoin not gold; falling short for payments highlights its struggles, with peak daily confirmed payments exceeding 884,000 in September. This situation reflects a drying up in network activity, shown by a significantly reduced mempool, indicating fewer unconfirmed transactions remaining each day.
Peak daily confirmed payments on the Bitcoin blockchain exceeded 884,000 in September, a figure reported in the on-chain metrics. The current mempool has dried up to just a few thousand unconfirmed transactions per day, as noted in the same dataset. These two measures address confirmed transaction throughput and the backlog of unconfirmed transactions on the network as recorded in the cited on-chain dataset.
The on-chain metrics cited here are sourced from Blockchain.com and form the basis for the figures above. Presented together, the peak daily confirmed payments and the mempool level are offered as evidence of recent network activity trends without interpretation or speculation, confined to the stated transaction and queueing metrics. No additional data, explanations, or market interpretations are included beyond the specified on-chain metrics and the named data source.
Bitcoin has underperformed relative to traditional precious metals such as gold and silver. This underperformance is linked to various on-chain metrics that illustrate a decline in network activity. Specifically, there has been a reduction in active addresses and subdued transaction volumes. These indicators point to reduced institutional and retail conviction in Bitcoin’s utility as both a transactional network and a store of value.
As Omkar Godbole stated, “On-chain signals point to a market in consolidation rather than accumulation. Network activity has softened. The reduced institutional and retail conviction can be seen in lower active addresses and subdued transaction volumes.”
Supporting this view, Vikram Subburaj noted, “A token’s price is tied to the active user adoption of its parent network, and the recent decline in activity at least partially explains BTC’s dull price performance in recent months.”
This reduced activity appears directly connected to Bitcoin’s lackluster price performance, rejecting any speculative interpretations about future trends in value or use efficiency.
Bitcoin’s network activity has diminished, manifested in lower on-chain participation and a lighter backlog of pending transactions, reducing its effectiveness as payments infrastructure. At the same time, weaker on-chain engagement, including declines in active addresses and subdued transaction volumes, has coincided with diminished performance in its role as a store of value. These patterns are observable in the on-chain and market measures reported in the available data.
