Out-of-Band Fee Divergence
Network-wide divergence (in BTC) between realised block fees and the fees expected from the public mempool template - a proxy for out-of-band or custom transaction selection.
What is it?
Difference, in BTC and hash-power-weighted, between the fees actually captured by blocks and the fees the template built from the public mempool would have earned. A negative value indicates blocks capture fewer fees than the expected public template - often because transactions were selected or ordered differently: out-of-band transactions (sent directly to the miner), acceleration services, or custom ordering.
How to read
The more negative the value, the stronger the divergence (more transactions leaving the public fee market). Read it as a trend; the metric accumulates its points over time.
Key zones
There is no normative threshold; the value is by construction slightly negative and its drift is what matters. A drift toward more negative values reflects a rise in out-of-band flows or custom templates.
What to observe
Watch for a sustained drift toward the negative, which accompanies the rise of acceleration services and miner-side template construction. Cross-reference with the custom-template hash power share to distinguish the two causes.
Historical context
Acceleration services and out-of-band transaction submission channels grew from 2022-2024. The metric tracks the phenomenon as it unfolds; its history grows progressively.
Expert notes
It is a proxy measure: a negative sign is expected even without out-of-band flows, because the public template is an approximation. It is the relative drift that informs, not the absolute value. The metric is weighted by pool hash power.
Common mistakes to avoid
A divergence does not mean transaction censorship: it can reflect perfectly legitimate custom templates, or private transactions chosen by their senders. It does not measure mining quality, only the selection gap relative to the public market.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/onchain/out-of-band-fee-divergence/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "out-of-band-fee-divergence",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: pro. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.