Key facts:
Migration of users to other blockchains may be a cause of low fees on Ethereum.
A month ago, it was paid almost 5 times more than now, on average, to use Ethereum.
Fees on the Ethereum network are at their lowest level, on average, in the last 5 months. At the time of writing this article, the amount, expressed in US dollars, is USD 13.92.
The data can be queried on block explorers, for example, blockchain. There it is observed that Since the end of last September, an average of similar commissions has not been seen.
A little over a month ago, on January 10, Ethereum saw an average of transactions almost five times higher than the current one: USD 53.03.
Unlike other blockchains, Ethereum fees are not only for sending money (i.e., transactions in the native ether currency) but also for interactions with smart contracts.
The latter includes, for example, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace transactions, movements on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, or ERC-20 token shipments, for example, tether (USDT), DAI, or shiba inu (SHIB), among others.
Why did the fees on Ethereum drop?
The average commission graph does not provide an unequivocal cause for the reduction in commissions, but it can be inferred that it is due to the migration of users to other blockchains. As CriptoNoticias has reported, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Fantom and others have cornered part of the market traditionally occupied by Ethereum.
Also scalability solutions, such as the Polygon sidechain, help decongest the network. Something similar happens with rollups, second layers of Ethereum that group transactions and execute them outside of the similar transaction.
It would not be strange that, in a few days, the Etheruem rates increase their value considerably again. If the low amounts to operate in the network again attract users massively, it would become congested again and possibly the cycle will repeat itself.
Ethereum is still the favorite blockchain for dApps and smart contracts
Despite the expensive and slow user experience that the Ethereum mainnet can offer in its current state, the blockchain created by Vitalik Buterin continues to dominate the market for decentralized applications.
The Block’s metrics show that the value locked in Ethereum significantly outperforms its major competitor blockchains: Terra, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom, in addition to 10 other minor networks.