Ethereum Transaction Fees Drop by 80% as PEPE Enters a Slumber

Ethereum gas fees rose to their highest level since 2022 following the return of memecoin in May supported by the emergence of the “Pepe the frog” altcoin, PEPE. However, this trend appears to have slowed amid declining interest in PEPE despite turning many investors into millionaires overnight.

According to new data released by on-chain analytics firm IntoTheBlock, total Ethereum transaction fees have fallen by more than 16% this week alone.

Total Ethereum transaction fees are down 16.5% this week! The May meme mania that fueled the recent rise in fees appears to be harkening back to crypto history. # ethereum pic.twitter.com/QuKgve8wNM

– IntoTheBlock (intotheblock) June 2, 2023

• When zoomed out, the transaction fee Projection By 80% in one month from $27.62 on May 5th to $5.50 on June 4th. This number currently hovers near the level last seen during mid-April.
• The latest development comes as a major reprieve for blockchain, whose detractors have forever deemed exorbitant gas fees a “fatal flaw.”
• Aside from mainnet, Ethereum layer 2 scaling solutions have also been hit by higher transaction fees during last month’s memecoin renaissance.
• Particularly notable spikes have been seen on chains built with zero-knowledge proofs such as Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era. In fact, the cost of a single transaction on these total groups ranged from $2 to $11, and temporarily went up to $30.
• On the other hand, Pepe’s market capitalization has seen a significant drop from $1.15 billion to $450 million over the past month.
• Its price has fallen by more than 60% over the same period despite listing support by prominent crypto exchanges, including Binance.
• Besides Ethereum, the Bitcoin network memecoin craze led by the Ordinals inscription has waned dramatically in recent weeks. As a result, transaction fees on the network have returned to the mid-April level.