Ethereum transaction fees drop by 80% as PEPE enters a dream

Ethereum gas fees spiked to their highest level since 2022 following the May memecoin comeback championed by the rise of “Pepe the Frog”-themed altcoin PEPE. This trend, however, appears to have slowed amid waning interest in PEPE despite turning several investors into millionaires overnight.

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

Total Ethereum transaction fees are down 16.5% this week! The May meme token mania that fueled the recent fee hike seems to be going backwards in cryptocurrency history. #ethereal pic.twitter.com/QuKgve8wNM

—IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) June 2, 2023

• When walking away, the transaction fee abandonment by 80% for a month from $27.62 on May 5 to $5.50 on June 4. The figure is currently hovering near a level last seen in mid-April.
• The latest development comes as a big reprieve for the blockchain, whose critics have long regarded the exorbitant gas fee as its “fatal flaw.”
• In addition to the mainnet, Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions were also affected by increased transaction fees during the memecoin renaissance last month.
• Notable spikes were particularly observed in chains built with zero-knowledge proofs like Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era. In fact, the cost of a single transaction on these accumulated packages ranged from $2 to $11, temporarily rising to $30.
• Pepe’s market capitalization, on the other hand, witnessed a significant reduction from $1.15 billion to $450 million over the past month.
• Its price fell by more than 60% during the same period despite listing support from prominent crypto exchanges, including Binance.
• In addition to Ethereum, the Bitcoin network memecoin frenzy led by Ordinals signups has also waned considerably in recent weeks. As a result, the transaction fee on the network returned to the level of mid-April.