Despite 30% Drop, Ethereum Transaction Fees Remain Sky-High

Despite a drop of nearly 30% in the past three days, transaction fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network remain at the highest level they have been since July 2018.

According to fresh data from Bitinfocharts, the average fee paid to make transactions on Ethereum now stands at USD 3.24, based on a 7-day simple moving average of the fee figures. The current number represents a fall of almost 30% from USD 4.46 just last Tuesday, when Ethereum fees reached an all-time high.

Looking at the median transaction fee paid, however, the situation looks slightly better for users of the Ethereum network, with a median fee at just over USD 1.6 currently. The median is, in other words, far lower than the average, indicating that some Ethereum users are still paying a transaction fee significantly lower than the currently record-high average fees.

The high transaction fees have become a problem for many users who depend on transacting either with ETH or one of the many tokens that have been built on top of the network, making it increasingly frustrating to use Ethereum-based tokens for smaller transactions.

The record-high fees have already led some to question whether Ethereum can remain the dominant network for DeFi projects, with for instance crypto investor and entrepreneur Qiao Wang recently saying that he believes there’s an “obvious opportunity” for another and more scalable platform to “dethrone Ethereum.”

Meanwhile, some members of the community have even opined that due to the sheer number of applications that have been built on Ethereum, particularly stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) apps, the network has now become “unforkable.”

“I do think that Ethereum is unforkable now because of the way that things depend on it to run. It’s not going to be able to do a do-over like it did in 2016. So, I think that, because of that, there’s very high stakes stuff now happening on Ethereum that it may or may not be ready to handle as a platform,” Su Zhu, CEO of crypto investment fund Three Arrows Capital warned on the POV Crypto Podcast recently.

Along with the rising transaction fees, the ETH price has seen a slight sell-off that has taken it from a high of USD 446 one week ago, and to USD 404, a 7-day decline of 6% as of 14:20 UTC today. Still, the current price represents a 24-hour gain for the ETH price of 3.6%, making it one of today’s best-performing coins among the top 10 cryptoassets by market capitalization.

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Learn more:
Ethereum Hits 2-Year High, ETH Fees at All-Time High, Bitcoin Dominance Slips
The Sky’s the Limit for Ethereum Fees, Leaving ETH Miners ‘Laughing’
Median Ethereum Fee Up Almost 1,300% Since April, Bitcoin Fees Jump Too
Ethereum Transaction Fees Rise Further, Gap with Bitcoin Narrows