Ethereum’s escalating gas fees are becoming a source of concern after recent data showed a user paying a whopping $119k in fees for a single transaction.
Data highlighted by WhaleAlert revealed that the trader had to shell out 64.01 ETH worth roughly $119,121.
Not long ago, ETH’s gas median hit 141gwei [one-billionth of one ETH], the highest rate since May 12th, 2022.
The sudden surge took many by surprise, given that it had been about a year since the median gas rate had surpassed the 100gwei mark.
Uniswap-related contracts were discovered to be the main consumers of Ethereum Gas during these times, TronWeekly reported.
However, the high gas fee is not a new phenomenon on the Ethereum network. Especially before the transition from the proof-of-work [PoW] protocol to proof-of-stake [PoS] through the Merge.
At the time, the exorbitant gas fees pushed away users to opt for other platforms. In fact, these led to the birth of many other layer-2 scaling solutions like Polygon zkEVM, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
The primary reason for the skyrocketing gas fees was the slow speed of the Eth chain. The network was bogged by the huge number of transaction requests, and that’s when miners increased the gas fee.
As a result, the Eth chain’s scaling was impacted, and many users typically missed the chance to complete a transaction.
And this is where the switch to PoS was supposed to help with the gas problems by essentially declogging the network.
But it appears that ETH’s biggest challenges have made a comeback with the recent record-high gas fees. Market experts have pinned the blame on the meme coins buzz that sparked high network activity and caused a blockage over the weekend.
Ethereum Whales Panic Selling Amidst Meme Coins Frenzy
This uptick in the network activity hit an all-time high after Binance listed two of its most trending tokens, PEPE and Floki Inu for trading on its platform.
Additionally, the panic selling by whales that contributed to this traffic may have reduced the gains made by these meme coins, especially for retail traders.
Ethereum’s large-scale investors have resorted to panic selling in response to Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation selling significant amounts of their holdings,
Data from Lookonchain showed that the two whales have emptied 19,090 ETH worth $35.7 million on Uniswap.