Due to the rise in cryptocurrency prices, the gas fee on the Ethereum network has sharply increased, resulting in the cost of NFT transactions approaching $400. According to Etherscan data, the average fee for completing a typical NFT transaction on Ethereum reached $372.29 at certain times. This means that even for exchanging simple Profile Picture (PFP) images among friends, users were forced to pay hundreds of dollars. Token swaps on Ethereum cost nearly $220 per transaction, while borrowing on Ethereum exceeded $186 per transaction. Transferring funds from Ethereum to another blockchain cost an average of over $70.
Uniswap became the largest gas consumer in the Ethereum ecosystem, burning ETH worth more than $4.2 million. This increase in gas fees comes against the backdrop of a significant rise in the value of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, as well as intra-network assets, including NFTs. On Monday morning, ETH reached $3500 for the first time since the beginning of 2022, and a CryptoPunks NFT was sold for $16.03 million, becoming the second-highest price for an item from this collection.
The rise in gas fees comes just days before the launch of the Ethereum Dencun upgrade, which aims to significantly reduce transaction costs on Ethereum layer 2 scalable networks through a new data storage method called proto-danksharding. Layer 2 developers have expressed anticipation that Dencun will greatly reduce gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem, potentially rendering the concept of such fees obsolete.
