Some of the links on this site may be affiliate links. ICOBench may receive advertising commissions when users visit recommended platforms via our affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. All recommendations are based on a comprehensive review process. 
Bitcoin News Today: CryptoQuant‘s Bitcoin Network Activity Index has reached its highest level since late 2024 and broken above its long-term 365-day moving average for the first time since mid-2024, yet Bitcoin sits at approximately $62,584, well below prior cycle highs and down 0.73% on the session. CryptoQuant’s Head of Research, Julio Moreno, published the findings.
The surge is driven almost entirely by micro-transactions below 0.01 BTC, which now constitute 80% of all daily Bitcoin transactions, up sharply from 44% in 2023, with the activity concentrated in Runes, Ordinals, and BRC-20 protocol usage and OP_RETURN opcode calls hitting near-record levels.
Total daily BTC transactions have crossed 800,000, sitting only approximately 7% below the all-time high recorded in September 2024, while the mempool has swelled to 128,000 unconfirmed transactions, its most congested reading since late February 2025.
Bitcoin network activity is surging.
Micro-transactions below 0.01 BTC now make up ~80% of all BTC transactions, up from under 50% in 2023, while OP_RETURN usage nears record highs driven by Runes, Ordinals, and inscriptions.
The surge is activity-driven, not value-driven. pic.twitter.com/ssAYPfEfmq
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) June 18, 2026
The open question the market must now resolve is whether a sustained breakout in the Network Activity Index above its long-term trend historically precedes a BTC price move, or whether this protocol-driven composition, dominated by sub-$630 transfers and inscription activity, represents blockspace speculation that decouples from genuine economic demand and offers no reliable forward signal for price.
Bitcoin News Today: What CryptoQuant’s Network Activity Index Actually Reveals About the Current BTC Surge
Context significantly enhances the raw Network Activity Index figure. The index aggregates multiple on-chain dimensions, daily transaction counts, active addresses, mean transactions per block, and mempool throughput, into a composite reading that CryptoQuant treats as a structural gauge of network utilization rather than a simple transaction counter.
When the index crosses above its 365-day moving average, CryptoQuant’s framework classifies that condition as a bull phase entry, and the late March 2026 crossing, from a reading of approximately 3,320 to 3,600, marked the first such classification since April 2025, a period that preceded a meaningful BTC price recovery.
The mechanism behind the current surge is, however, compositionally distinct from prior bull-phase entries. Julio Moreno stated that the transaction surge is “concentrated almost entirely in the lowest value cohorts, with sub-0.01 BTC transaction share at ~80% of daily counts”, a pattern he described as “typical of protocol-driven activity.”
Bitcoin network activity is surging — OP_RETURN usage near record highs, heavily driven by Runes.
A huge portion of that activity is from the strong, consistent minting of $UG — UNCOMMON•GOODS (Rune #0).
Even after 26+ months, the community is still stacking hard.
This is… https://t.co/ce7Qi4TkiB
— UNCOMMON•GOODS ⧉ (@UNCOMMONGOODS01) June 18, 2026
The smallest transactions tracked are as low as 546 satoshis, approximately $0.35 at current prices, generated primarily through Ordinals inscriptions, BRC-20 token minting and transfers, and Runes, the UTXO-based fungible token standard launched by Casey Rodarmor on April 20, 2024, the same day as the Bitcoin halving, which immediately crowded blocks and briefly pushed median fees above $60 at peak minting demand.
Critically, CryptoQuant’s own framing stresses that the current surge is “driven by activity rather than value.” The number of daily on-chain transactions has more than doubled from 2025 lows, but total USD value transferred on-chain has not increased proportionally, a divergence that points to speculative and experimental protocol usage rather than a parallel boom in large capital flows.
Mean transactions per block have been near record levels for several consecutive weeks, which Moreno characterized as structural rather than transient, but that structural reading carries a significant caveat: the same metric spiked during the initial Ordinals mania of early 2023 and the BRC-20 minting wave of mid-2023, both of which drove daily transactions above 500,000 and materially raised average fees without triggering a sustained BTC price breakout on their own.
