Bitcoin has gone gung ho. The rally shows no signs of stopping which has further pushed Ethereum’s price to approach its all-time high. However, users seem to have spent more on the Ethereum network than on Bitcoin throughout last year.
This was noted by Rafael Schultze-Kraft, the CTO of the blockchain analytic platform, Glassnode. In his tweet, the exec stated that in terms of network fees, Ethereum “flipped” Bitcoin. The users on the network reportedly spent almost $600 million in fees on Ethereum last year which was 83% more than that on Bitcoin.
This could be attributed to the DeFi madness that gained traction in mid-2020 when the ecosystem showed up on the front page of crypto news. The investors were left FOMOing and the enthusiasm was general, both on the side of the projects that have exploded within a very short time span, and the funds involved.
Ethereum has dominated almost every conversation related to DeFi and very well so since it supported the sector almost single-handedly last year. Even as the cracks showed much of it, there was no backing for the users.
This is the first time ever that Ethereum’s network fees surpassed that of Bitcoin. According to the above chart, the users spent a little over $300 million on the latter’s network. And this trend has further intensified as the underlying token, Ether [ETH] hovers slightly below its peak.
Ethereum Fees Shoots Up to All-Time High
At the time of writing, ETH witnessed a minor setback following which its price dropped to $1,289.9. But it was not until very recently, 3rd of January to be precise that the token surged past the $1,000 mark.
This was followed by the average transaction fee on the network soaring to ATH of $17.41. The last time the Ethereum network’s previous highest average fee of $12.54 was recorded on the 1st of September last year. As Bitcoin rose to prominence shortly around the fourth quarter of 2020, the DeFi mania faded which coincided with a drop in ETH network fees which averaged less than $5 for much of the quarter.
Notably, even as the average fee has since declined, as depicted by the data compiled by YCharts, the latest figure at $7.67 was still quite high.