Median Ethereum Fee Up Almost 1,300% Since April, Bitcoin Fees Jump Too

The fees on both Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) networks are rising yet again, prompting both the user dissatisfaction and discussions of possible solutions.

There seems to be no end to what many perceive as major issues with high fees on the two biggest networks. The median average Bitcoin transaction fee is currently USD 3.84. Looking at the seven-day moving average, following the spike in late May to USD 5.45, the fees dropped to little above USD 1 in June, staying on that level until mid-July.

Now, we see it rising again. Between July 12 and July 23, the fees went up 142%, to USD 2.73.

The median transaction fee shows a similar picture, staying around USD 0.5 between the May high and mid-July. Since July 12 when a sharp rise started, this fee shows an increase of 184% to USD 1.65 on July 23.

Median transaction fee, USD, 7-day simple moving average

Furthermore, BTC mempool, where all the valid transactions wait to be confirmed by the Bitcoin network, has also been more crowded in the second part of July, with a rising number of transactions between 40 and 140 satoshis per byte.

Meanwhile, the average Ethereum fee is currently USD 1.39 when looking at raw values. Seven-day moving average shows that the network experienced a massive spike in June – from USD 0.5 to USD 1.6 – dropping back as fast as it increased.

It had mostly maintained USD 0.5 – USD 0.6 level until July 15, going up 58.3% since to USD 1.04 on July 23.

The median transaction fee, though, shows an interesting picture – the fees have been on the rise since April. Between April 1 and July 23, the median fee (seven-day moving average) shows a rise of a whopping 1,289% – from USD 0.035 to USD 0.486. This number was higher in July of 2018 when it reached USD 0.91, and in January of the same year, when it hit an all-time high of USD 2.26. To compare, BTC median fee increased by 352% since April.

Median transaction fee, USD, 7-day simple moving average

And this is far from the first time that people have criticized the networks’ high fees.

Meanwhile, blockchain intelligence company Coin Metrics argued earlier this week that higher fees spells good news for ETH miners, and added that rising fees prove that the network is in rude health. However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin seems to be of a different opinion. He warned:

Also, Da Hongfei, co-founder of blockchain platform NEO, called the competitor’s fees “ridiculously expensive.”

Many Ethereum fans are placing their hopes in the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 upgrade as a solution to the network issues, with the final public testnet expected to go live in August. But others are warning that looking towards Serenity (as the upgrade is called) to solve everything is a bad idea.

“Ok, Ethereum fees are high versus history but some of you are way too doomsday about it, especially with solutions coming,” wrote today Eric Conner, a product researcher at blockchain startup Gnosis, adding that “I haven’t hyped up phase 2 [of ETH 2.0] as the solution. I’ve hyped eth1 l2 ideas as the solution.”

Others are saying that decentralized finance (DeFi) will eventually find another home, and that there will always be another blockchain with similar features as Ethereum, but with smaller fees.

Melody He, The Spartan Group co-founder, commented that the non-Defi dapps (decentralized apps) built on Ethereum already have problems with the network’s performance and “now they have to pay sky-high gas fee. No way any of them will stay on ETH.”

At the time of writing (13:56 UTC), BTC is trading at 9,513. It remained unchanged in a day and went up more than 3% in a week. ETH changes hands a USD 273, having appreciated 3% in a day and 16% in a week.

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