What Is a Mempool and How Does It Contribute to Fee Market Dynamics?

The mempool (memory pool) is a waiting area for unconfirmed transactions that have been broadcast to the network but not yet included in a block. Miners or validators select transactions from the mempool, usually prioritizing those with the highest fees.

A large mempool indicates network congestion, signaling users to raise their fees to compete for inclusion, thus directly driving fee market dynamics.