Median Ethereum [ETH] Fees Rises Ten-Fold Since the Beginning of the Year: Report

By Nivesh Rustgi
Updated June 24, 2020
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The total fees on Ethereum surpassed that of Bitcoin on 10th June. The increase in the adoption of smart contracts and stablecoin issuance has been highly positive for Ethereum growth. According to a report from Coinmetrics,

ETH median fees have, however, grown significantly since the beginning of the year. On January 1st, 2020, ETH median fees were a little less than $0.04.

Ethereum blocks have been mostly full over the last couple of weeks. This prompted the developers and miners to increase the gas limit on the network.

ethereum gas blocks
Gas Usage (Green) Vs. Gas Block (Red) on Ethereum

The median fee on Ethereum is currently ranging between $0.47-0.65. The median fee Bitcoin on which rose to a high around $5 near halving have returned to $1 and $1.50 range this week. This is particularly worrisome for Ethereum because the majority of the transactions on the network is for Non-ETH transfers. Hence, the transaction fees for secondary transactions must be considerably smaller to process smart contracts.

According to another report, more than 89% of Ethereum’s transaction is occupied by non-ETH transfers. It is mostly dominated by stablecoin transfers and DeFi applications. Nevertheless, there are other interesting applications on Ethereum which includes gaming and digital collectables.

Here’s an interesting use-case 

Gemini backed start-up, Nifty Gateways, is promoting digital art by renown digital artist in the worlds via NFTs.

An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique blockchain-based token which holds a specific value. It is different from Bitcoin [BTC] and Ether [ETH] in that those are usually fungible, every token holds equals value.

One of the leading problems of digital art is imitation and security. The process of saving it on a blockchain-based NFT will authenticate its’ credibility and ownership more securely. The start-up releases exclusive content from well-known artists and brands each week. In the past, they have worked with leading artists of the likes of Kenny Scharf and Lyle Owerko.

The engagement on Ethereum blockchain has increased considerably since the beginning of 2020. While it has been positive for adoption, it is again raising significant concerns around the scalability of Ethereum.

Do you think that the dynamic changes by the core developers will be able to keep up with the rising demand? Please share your views with us.

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Nivesh Rustgi
Nivesh from Engineering Background is a full-time Crypto Analyst at Coingape. He is an atheist who believes in love and cultural diversity. He believes that Cryptocurrency is a necessity to deter corruption. He holds small amounts of cryptocurrencies. Faith and fear are two sides of the same coin. Follow him on X at @nivishoes or mail him at nivesh(at)coingape.com
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