The Bitcoin network recently experienced a significant surge in transaction fees, with the average fee peaking at around $52 per transfer on Friday, according to data from mempool.space. This spike in fees, requiring over 5.4 BTC (approximately $400,000) to be paid to miners for generating a single block, has been attributed to crypto exchange OKX.

Questions surrounding the sudden increase in fees prompted OKX's Chinese account to address the issue on X, confirming that the exchange had been conducting tests on a new "collection program." However, OKX has since halted the testing following the community's concerns.

The exact method by which OKX's testing impacted Bitcoin's fee landscape remains unclear at this time. Web3 analyst @1999_eth has suggested the possibility of a flawed script being deployed by the exchange. Nevertheless, the incident has led to significant congestion on the Bitcoin network, with over 330,000 transactions currently stuck awaiting processing.

Bitcoin network congestion often occurs during periods of high transaction volume or major events in the crypto market. In 2017, for example, during Bitcoin's rally to $20,000, the mempool recorded approximately 180,000 unconfirmed transactions, causing significant delays for users awaiting transaction processing.