The Ethereum network charged an average gas fee of about $40 per month between January 2021 and May 2022, with May 1 of that year seeing the highest average daily gas price of $196.638.
The extraordinarily high transaction fees, or "gas fees," needed to conduct a transaction are frequently cited as the Ethereum ecosystem's biggest barrier to dominance in the mainstream. The story is about to change, though, with Ethereum's average gas fees dropping to 0.0015 Ether (ETH).
On the Ethereum blockchain, the standard transaction price decreased to 0.0015 ETH, or $1.57, which was last seen in December 2020. The euphoria surrounding nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi), and a hopeful bull market, however, caused Ethereum's gas fees to soar beginning in January 2021.
Data from BitInfoCharts shows that for nearly two years, from January 2021 and May 2022, the Ethereum network's average gas fee was about $40, with May 1, 2022 marking the highest gas cost of $196.638.
The daily NFTs sales have also fallen to one-year lows, as Cointelegraph discovered on Saturday, supporting this dramatic reduction in gas prices. The overall number of daily sales plummeted to about 19,000, with an estimated value of $13.8 million, giving the NFT ecosystem its poorest month of the year.
In November 2021, when many investors complained about the exorbitant gas fees, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented a proposal to lower costs and impose caps to lessen the network's unprecedented levels of stress. By adding a call-data restriction per block to reduce ETH gas prices, Buterin had suggested a temporary solution to further reduce rollup costs.
XCarnival, a provider of Ethereum liquidity, regained 1,467 ETH just one day after the protocol had 3,087 ETH, or almost $3.8 million, stolen via an exploit.
Blockchain researcher Peckshield described the attack's nature by saying:
The hack is made possible by permitting an NFT that has been withdrawn from pledged status to still be utilized as collateral. The hacker then uses this collateral to empty the pool of assets.
Despite the crypto winter, Solana outperforms Ethereum.
Over the course of seven days, Solana outperforms Ethereum in terms of transaction volume by more over 30%.
Even if Ethereum transaction fees are at their lowest level in two years, Solana transaction fees are still significantly lower than those of Ethereum.
A sizable portion of the market is also being occupied by Solana.
Solana has been gradually catching up to Ethereum even before the start of the unprecedented crypto winter. The network has gained popularity among users of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi), who are switching away from Ethereum due to the network's high transaction fees. Even yet, Ethereum was able to maintain its lead against Solana. But Solana has advanced at this point.
In contrast to Ethereum, where transaction costs have dropped to a two-year low, Solana's transaction costs remain incredibly low, drawing people in like a magnet. Solana is better for carrying out tiny transactions because of its lower transaction fees because there is no pressure to pay more in gas expenses than is necessary to go over the blockchain.