Ethereum
Bitcoin is now as expensive as Ethereum in terms of fees: according to Q2 2024 data
On-chain data shows that users of the Bitcoin blockchain had to pay the same total fees as Ethereum over the past quarter.
Bitcoin users paid $440 million in transaction fees in the last quarter
As market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock highlighted in a new job on X, Bitcoin saw a sharp increase in transaction fees over the last quarter.transaction fees“Here, we are naturally referring to the amount that senders on the blockchain must include with their transfers as compensation for validators.
Average fees on the network generally reflect the activity that takes place there. In times of high traffic, users have no choice but to pay high fees if they want their transfers completed in a timely manner.
This is because the network only has limited capacity to handle transactions. Therefore, validators naturally prefer to place transfers with the highest fees first in the next block.
With users competing with each other to get the first hits, fees can skyrocket. However, in times of low channel activity, senders have no reason to charge high fees, so the value remains low.
Below is an infographic shared by IntoTheBlock showing how the total fees compared between Bitcoin and Ethereum in the second quarter of this year.
Looks like the fees has been almost the same for the two networks recently | Source: IntoTheBlock on X
As can be seen above, the Bitcoin network has seen total transaction fees of around $440 million over the past three months. This reflects an increase of almost 61% from the previous quarter.
While fees have increased significantly for BTC, this is not the case for ETH. It appears that Ethereum users paid 63% less in fees during this period compared to the previous quarter.
Fees on ETH were previously significantly higher than those on BTC, earning the network a reputation for being expensive. However, with this drop, total fees on the network have fallen to $441 million, just $1 million more than what the original cryptocurrency saw.
Now, what is causing these trends? In the case of Bitcoin, the introduction of Runes The main driver of growth is the protocol that was implemented in April. This protocol, which allows users to create fungible tokens on the network, found immediate popularity and increased transaction activity for BTC.
As for Ethereum’s decline, the analytics firm notes that transactions have shifted to Layer 2 solutions during this period. Layer 2 blockchains are built on top of a mainnet to improve transaction throughput.
Although ETH and BTC have relatively high transaction fees, Litecoin (LTC) has remained the cheapest network recently, as IntoTheBlock shared in a answer at office.
The data for the average transaction fees on the various top cryptocurrency networks | Source: IntoTheBlock on X
BTC Price
Bitcoin has failed to recover from its recent fall, with its price still trading around $60,800.
The price of the coin appears to have been moving sideways over the last few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image of Dall-E, IntoTheBlock.com, chart by TradingView.com