26 days ago, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain and after the change, the network’s fees remained low. This week, however, Ethereum’s gas fees have increased as data from October 10 shows the average fee tapped a high of $4.75 per transaction.
Ethereum’s Average Gas Fees Jump Over 80% in 3 Days
Ethereum’s gas fees have ticked upwards, jumping 84% higher from $2.58 per transaction on October 8, to $4.75 per transfer on October 10. The Ethereum fees are still below $4, which is approximately 61 days.
According to bitinfocharts.com statistics, the average transfer fee was $2.2 on October 10. Etherscan.io’s gas tracker also shows an increase as today’s high priority fee is around 27 gwei or $0.62 per transfer.
44 days ago or on August 28, 2022, etherscan.io’s gas tracker shows that fees were lower prior to The Merge as a high priority fee was around 11 gwei or $0.34 per transfer. Although fees for high-priority transfers are only $0.62, the cost of swapping or moving ERC20 tokens can be higher.
Opensea sells for $2.13 today, compared to $1.17 on August 28. A Uniswap transaction has an estimated price of $5.49, while it cost $3.03 44 days prior.
Today, sending an ERC20 token such as USDT or USC costs $1.61. On August 18, the transaction cost was $0.89. Layer two (L2) fees are still much cheaper than Ethereum’s onchain transfer statistics.
Metis Network charges $0.01 for ETH transfer, and Loopring costs $0.02. Zksync, Arbitrum and Loopring will each cost $0.03 per transfer of ETH. Optimism costs $0.10 today.
Boba network costs $0.15 per transaction, and Aztec network charges $0.25 per transfer. Depending on the L2 chosen, swapping an ERC20 can be as easy or difficult at $0.05-$32.
While ETH fees have increased since The Merge of September 15, block times are now faster than before the transition. However, it has been only milliseconds. The block time for pre-Merge blocks was 0.244 seconds, but post-Merge block intervals were 0.201 minutes. That’s 17% faster than the September 15th block times.
Although many believed gas costs would become cheaper with The Merge’s release, The Ethereum Foundation made it clear well in advance that The Merge will not change gas fees and throughput.
“The Merge deprecates the use of proof-of-work, transitioning to proof-of-stake for consensus, but does not significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput,” the Ethereum Foundation said on August 16.
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