The downturn in the broad crypto market has had an upside for active ETH users. This is because the continuous drop has caused the ETH network GAS rates to drop.
Gas rates on the largest smart contract blockchain have dropped to the lowest dollar price since November 2020. This is due to a decline in the price of ETH and network activity.
According to Etherscan data compiled by YCharts, the average fee to make a transaction has dropped to the current 21 Gwei, the equivalent of 0.0021 ETH. As Ether is currently trading at around $1,100, the value corresponds to around $2.31.
GAS rates on ETH drops
Throughout 2021, ETH gas rates skyrocketed to record highs. This rally came as ETH rose along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market. In addition, the explosion of interest in NFTs contributed to the increase. After all, the vast majority of non-fungible token trading takes place on ETH.
At the height of the frenzy of this market, dubbed “summer NFT”, minting NFTs cost users hundreds of dollars.
In addition, more complex transactions reached even higher values as the network became increasingly congested. As a result, alternative Layer 1 blockchains such as Solana, Avalanche, for example, have skyrocketed in user numbers.
The vast majority of these users are speculators in the retail market, attracted by the lower transaction fees. But now the situation has reversed and since the cryptocurrency market peaked in 2021, gas rates have declined.
Since then, ETH has lost 77% of its dollar value, meaning the dollar cost per transaction has also dropped. Finally, data from Etherscan shows that the average number of daily transactions has also dropped.
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