wow. I just send a small amount of BTC to the mixer and was surprised about that I paid almost half of it on fees... 
last time I used bitmixer, it cost only 0.0005 BTC per transaction and now 0.001 BTC...
why did the fee explode like this?
for small amounts the mixer is now pretty useless unfortunately
The btc network is bogged down so the fees needed went up, so the mixer has to use more to mix and well it probably partially protects against double spends.last time I used bitmixer, it cost only 0.0005 BTC per transaction and now 0.001 BTC...
why did the fee explode like this?
for small amounts the mixer is now pretty useless unfortunately
The clogged nature of the BTC networks is indeed slowing things down, but bitmixer.io's service still works pretty well (I have used them many times).
I would suggest waiting to send somewhat larger amounts of BTC to them for mixing, at least for now, that way the fees (bitmixer's and miner's percentages) will not be so high, and your trx will likely go faster. If you send very small amounts (say BTC0.1 or less for example), the miner's fee will be very high (on a percentage basis).