When I first began writing this, there were only around 99,000 unconfirmed transactions but it peaked at around 100,000!
When a block just cleared, the transactions went down to around 97,000 and with 10 minute block times, 100,000 transactions equate to around an average wait time of over 5 hours!
Bitcoin's scalability issues have plagued it for a while. I found an article from June outlining the first time bitcoin's backlog did not clear in a month, where some people had waited weeks for one confirmation.
However, as more people start using and adopting bitcoin, this will only get worse. Bitcoin was originally an innovative idea by the creators with a pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, with the potential to revolutionize money and payment. However, with the current day, bitcoin isn't the vision Satoshi had in mind.
Many believe that bitcoin cash is closer to Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision and thus the recent pump in price, triggered by the cancellation of the hard fork (and then uncancellation of it).
I just can't wait for a day where this speculation and volatility dies down a bit so I can go back to happily trading altcoins.