By late-afternoon Tuesday trading, the world’s leading cryptocurrency stood at $11,112 having only broken $10k on Monday morning.

With rapid upward movement and increased interest in the asset, the number of unconfirmed transactions has increased and the transaction queue or mempool has grown figuratively longer.

The wider macro-economic trend of inflationary government and central bank policies have arguably increased Bitcoin’s appeal in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. However, this latest surge in Bitcoin fees has been attributed by some to the ongoing decentralised finance (DeFi) boom.

In the past month, the amount of investment locked into these non-custodial financial products has surged from $2bn to $4bn (£3bn, €3.4bn). With most DeFi smart contracts living on Ethereum, the second largest crypto in the world has surged. In the past week, ETH has risen from $245 to $318.

FURTHER READING: Bitcoin breaks $10,000 for the first time since June

FURTHER READING: Greggs is on a roll