Temps Moyen de Confirmation

Between broadcast and inclusion in a block, every transaction waits in the mempool queue. This metric tracks that wait (source methodology: median wait for fee-paying transactions that ultimately confirmed, in minutes). On a clear network, a reasonably-priced transaction typically makes the next block — a wait of roughly 10 minutes; under congestion, the queue can stretch to hours or days.

Block space is a scarce resource auctioned every ten minutes: miners fill blocks from the highest fee rate (sats/vByte) down. How long you wait depends not on network 'speed' but on where your bid sits in the queue. In calm periods even minimum-fee transactions confirm promptly; when demand surges, the bidding war shoves low bids to the back indefinitely. This chart is effectively the fee market's stress level, expressed in time.

December 2017: bull-mania volume overwhelmed the 1MB block capacity, backlogs exceeded 200,000 transactions, average fees hit the $50 range, and low-fee transactions sat unconfirmed for days. May 2023: the BRC-20 minting frenzy pushed the mempool toward half a million pending transactions, Binance twice halted BTC withdrawals, and on May 8 a block's total fees exceeded the 6.25 BTC subsidy for the first time. December 2023: a second inscription wave drove mempool data size to record highs — a queue worth days of block production.

Three limitations. Only transactions that eventually confirmed are counted — abandoned or evicted ones vanish from the data, so congestion-era waits are systematically understated. Long-tail outliers skew the statistics. And users can jump the queue via RBF (fee bumping) or CPFP, so real experience can beat the reported figure. Also remember: one confirmation is not finality — the convention for large payments is six.

Beyond network data, see the broader market via total crypto market cap and BTC liquidations.