The cost of transactions on the Ethereum network has significantly decreased compared to the stunning “DeFi Summer 2021” and the subsequent boom in the issuance of non-fungible tokens. Interest in speculative NFT purchases has dropped significantly on Ethereum, and users transacting on it can wait for reasonable prices for transactions or switch to alternative blockchains.
Ethereum’s transaction costs hit their lowest level in two years as of September 30, according to The Block. Despite the fact that the cost of transactions has reached a new two-year low, the number of Ethereum transactions and the number of daily active users at the same time remains at the same level. The likely reason is that transacting users do not feel the need to pay a lot of money for the speedy execution of their transactions.
When looking at the total number of transactions and active addresses on the Ethereum network, none of these stats are close to all-time lows. What’s more, both the two grew by around 20% and 60% in the same biennium, respectively. According to The Block, transactions on Uniswap, OpenSea, and ETH transfers were the smart contracts with the highest gas consumption (transaction costs) over the past month.
During the entire 14-month period, OpenSea contributed a huge share of total gas consumption, however, since January this share has dropped markedly. Previously, OpenSea consumed 230,000 ETH, or approximately 16,400 ETH per month. Over the past 30 days, this figure has been well below the average monthly value, and, at the moment, is only about 1100 ETH. That is, the reduction in transaction costs can be explained by a significant decrease in OpenSea activity and a slow migration of users switching to alternative blockchains in search of cheaper transactions.
At the same time, there is significant growth at Layer 2, primarily among optimistic cumulative solutions such as Arbitrum (ARB) and Optimism (OP). Despite the fact that transaction costs have reached a new low, the number of transactions in the leading solutions on the backbone of optimistic convolutions continues to grow.
