Ethereum Fees Skyrocket on Marketwide Crash and NFT Minting Event

Ethereum saw its average network fees surge by 300% yesterday, probably caused by the marketwide collapse and a minting event of a hyped project.

The Fees on Ethereum’s network once again skyrocketed. This time, it seems to have been prompted by two separate causes – the marketwide collapse and an anticipated minting of a new NFT collection.

Ethereum Fees Highest Since May

The fees on Ethereum’s network once again surged tremendously, charting an increase of about 300% in a day. Data from YCharts reveals that yesterday they were at the highest point since late May.

The average fees on Ethereum were recorded at $21.29 on September 7th.

ethereumfees_chart
Average Ethereum Fees. Source: Y Charts

The entire community took notice of this, with many arguing that there are competitive chains that provide a lot cheaper alternatives.

What Caused the Spike in ETH Fees?

There are two things that might be at the center of the high ETH fees. Right off the bat, and what seems like the more obvious explanation, was the marketwide collapse that we saw yesterday.

As CryptoPotato reported, over $2.5 billion worth of both long and short positions got wiped off in a matter of hours. This happened as Bitcoin tumbled below $43K, and Ethereum went almost as low as $3K.

An event of this kind triggers panic sellers. People flood exchanges, including decentralized ones like Uniswap, in an attempt to sell their holdings and prevent further losses. This, in turn, increases the requests for transactions and bid the ETH fees up. It happens every time there’s a sudden move in either direction.

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There’s another event that took place yesterday which might also be a reason for the high fees. An NFT project called “The Sevens” had its presale ending on September 7th (yesterday). Many users reported that they had to pay tremendously high gas fees to process the transaction, while a lot of them also complained that they lost a lot in gas and the transaction failed anyways.

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George Georgiev
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Georgi Georgiev is CryptoPotato's editor-in-chief and a seasoned writer with over 8 years of experience writing about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Georgi's passion for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies bloomed in late 2016 and he hasn't looked back since. Crypto’s technological and economic implications are what interest him most, and he has one eye turned to the market whenever he’s not sleeping.