Bitcoin and Ethereum transaction fees have dropped 81% and 71%, respectively, in the past few weeks, amid declines in cryptocurrencies after hitting all-time highs.
According to Bitinfocharts, the average transaction value on the Ethereum network fell from $ 69.92 per transaction on May 12 to $ 20.06 by May 16. In the same period, the price of ETH reached an all-time high of around $ 4,370 last week and fell below $ 3,200 as of Monday morning. Ether is currently trading for about $ 3,500.
ETH fees began to rise in line with the latest bull rally in the cryptocurrency market that began this year. In 2020, the average transaction fee did not exceed $ 0.1. The rapid rise in the cost of using Ethereum has also sparked a boom in DeFi, with decentralized finance protocols taking up nearly all of the top five gas consumers.
The active growth in the price of ETH is accompanied by an increase in the number of active addresses – this figure reached an all-time high of 7.94 million, exceeding the level of January 2018. The daily number of Ethereum users has quadrupled since the beginning of 2020, rising from 400,000 to 1.6 million. This figure does not include transactions in Ethereum’s second level protocols.
A similar trend is observed for the Bitcoin network. The average BTC transaction fee has decreased by more than 81% since mid-April to May 17. In the second half of April, the average transaction fee on the Bitcoin network exceeded $ 59 and reached $ 65. In 2017, at the peak of the last BTC bull market, this figure stood at $ 50. Currently, the average transaction fee is $ 11.34.
By the morning of May 17, the price of bitcoin dropped to $ 43,900, while in April, BTC was trading at 61,000. The bitcoin dominance index also fell in May to 40% – the lowest since the summer of 2018.

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