On-chain data shows that users of the Bitcoin blockchain had to pay the same total fees as Ethereum over the last quarter.
Bitcoin users paid $440 million in transaction fees 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 attach to their transfers as compensation for validators.
Average fees on the network usually reflect the activity that takes place on the network. During periods of high traffic, users have no choice but to pay high fees if they want their transfers to be completed in a reasonable time.
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.
As users compete with each other to get first dibs, fees can skyrocket. However, during times of low chain activity, senders have no incentive 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.
Although fees have increased significantly for BTC, the same is not true for ETH. Reportedly, Ethereum users paid 63% less in fees during this window compared to last quarter.
Fees on ETH were previously significantly higher than on BTC, earning the network a reputation for being expensive. With this drop, however, total fees on the network fell to $441 million, just $1 million more than the original cryptocurrency saw.
Now, what is the cause of these trends? In the case of Bitcoin, the introduction of the The 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.
Regarding 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 both ETH and BTC experience relatively high transaction fees, Litecoin (LTC) has continued to be the cheapest network recently, as shared by IntoTheBlock 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 by Dall-E, IntoTheBlock.com, chart by TradingView.com
