The Sky’s the Limit for Ethereum Fees, Leaving ETH Miners ‘Laughing’

This year, it seems that for ethereum (ETH), the only way is up, as prices continue to climb. But as the token continues to display signs of rude health and the DeFi sector is booming, transaction fees are also skyrocketing – with the price of moving tokens around on the Ethereum blockchain continuing to balloon.

Although a look at the data shows that are almost twice as many active addresses on the Bitcoin network, Ethereum network miners have been far happier of late – raking in over double the fees collected by their BTC rivals.

Per Messari data, Ethereum miners have collected a cool USD 3.7m in fees in the past 24 hours (UTC 18:07) on a mere USD 2.2bn worth of transactions.

By contrast, bitcoin (BTC) fees over the past 24 hours were just USD 1.6m – on USD 7.3bn worth of transactions.

BitInfoCharts data, meanwhile, indicates that median ETH transaction fees are almost at their second-highest level ever. A mid-2018 spike saw ETH transaction fees peak at around USD 0.912. Yesterday, it hit the USD 0.879 mark.

However, the mid-2018 spike was short-lived, while the most recent rise has been more gradual – and, so far, more sustained.

ETH fees still have a long way to go before they reach the crypto bubble of January 2018’s record high of over USD 2.20, however.

Crypto enthusiasts have taken to Twitter to express their surprise at the staggering fees many are suddenly being asked to pay on the Ethereum network.

After many months of relatively low fees, some are now balking at the amount they are being asked to pay for transactions.

Others suggested that the development was “good,” and could present ETH developers with an opportunity for innovation.

But some suggested that there was only one set of winners in the ETH game right now.

At pixel time (18:13 UTC), ETH trades at USD 384 and is down by almost 4% in a day and 1% in a week. The price is up by 60% in a month and 80% in a year.