Someone Moved $1 Billion on Ethereum for Just $7
2 min read
Someone just transferred 74.6 million Synthetix Network Tokens (SNX)—worth just over $1 billion—on the Ethereum network and paid a transaction fee of only $7.54 to do so, according to blockchain explorer Etherscan.
The funds were transferred from a contract called “Synthetix: Reward Escrow.” Synthetix is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for trading asset-pegged synthetic tokens on Ethereum. For example, a token might be pegged to the price of Tesla shares.
Notably, this might very well be one of the largest single crypto transactions to date. Last summer, a Bitcoin wallet came close to transferring $1 billion by moving 101,857 BTC—worth roughly $933 million at the time. On the other hand, that transaction would amount to nearly $4 billion if it was made at today’s prices.
$7 fee to transfer $1 Billion, in less than a minute, on a completely public trustless network. Just imagine what #Ethereum will be capable of in 10 years. https://t.co/5R8OiQujbD
— Nick de Bontin (@Ndebontin) January 15, 2021
While the SNX transaction is impressive by itself, Twitter users quickly pointed out that Ethereum transaction fees, nonetheless, are still a bit high for everyday use. A $7 fee becomes significantly move expensive if you only want to move a few dollars’ worth of tokens.
The best part ethereum not fit for daily transactions right now.
Same fees for 1$ in transaction.
So u have to pay 7x for your orignal transfer amount.
— FLUX (@freemaicrypto) January 15, 2021
As Decrypt reported last May, more than half of all Ethereum transactions were for less than $20, and 80% of transactions made were under $90. According to data scientist Alex Svanevik, co-founder of D5, this reflected how people use Ethereum in general.
55% of all ETH transactions are smaller than 0.1 ETH.
(not including internal transactions)
cc @tayvano_ pic.twitter.com/IvrZlRWsA0
— Alex Svanevik
(@ASvanevik) May 6, 2020
(@ASvanevik) He explained that Ethereum is the network of choice for many DeFi projects that are focused on micro-transactions. Additionally, it is a popular hub for mining pools, gambling apps and exchanges.
However, since DeFi exploded around last September, Ethereum transaction fees skyrocketed. Just recently, they have surged by almost 400%, reigniting debates on whether Ethereum is suitable for mainstream adoption. Many projects are working on layer two scaling solutions—but they haven’t proved to be a solution to the high fees just yet.
