The average transaction cost on the Bitcoin network increased to $52 on Friday, according to statistics from mempool.space. This means that in order to create a single block on the network, miners must be paid over 5.4 BTC, or around $400,000. OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange, seems to be the cause of the unusual rise in transaction costs on the Bitcoin network.

OKX's Chinese account swiftly responded to inquiries on X, reaffirming that the exchange was responsible for the most recent increase. They claimed that OKX had stopped "testing a collection program," which it had been "testing."

It's still unclear exactly how OKX changed the landscape of Bitcoin network fees as of the time of publication.

According to Web3 analyst @1999_eth, there's a chance the exchange used a faulty script. Whatever the reason, the event has affected the whole network, and as of the time of writing, over 330,000 transactions are delayed.

Congestion on the Bitcoin network usually spikes during times of heavy transaction volume or significant events in the cryptocurrency market. For example, in 2017, when Bitcoin surged above $20,000, there were over 180,000 unconfirmed transactions in the mempool, which resulted in several-day delays for users waiting for their transactions to be processed.