Ethereum gas fees has soared to a new multi-month high due to a growing memecoin frenzy. The increase in transaction fees has led to a multifold growth in Ethereum’s daily revenue compared to Bitcoin. While Ethereum proponents celebrated the growth in revenue, others have pointed out the network’s growing congestion and difficulties in processing transactions.
Shift in Top 10 Gas-Burning Altcoins
There has been an unusual shift in the top 10 gas-burning altcoins, with memecoins like TROLL, APED, and BOBO replacing Ethereum. As of April 20, the average gas price for Ethereum transactions was 81.94 gwei, up from 60.82 gwei on April 19 and 44.42 gwei last year, representing an increase of 34.74% from April 19 and 84.46% from April 20, 2022.
Ethereum Revenue Growth
Independent Ethereum educator, Anthony Sassano, shared the surge in daily fee revenue of the Ethereum network, stating that the second-largest blockchain had brought in 28 times the revenue of Bitcoin. He also cited Ethereum layer-2 platforms like Arbitrum One that have outperformed the BTC network in terms of daily revenue due to the ongoing meme frenzy.
Network Usability Debate
Ethereum proponents argue that the high gas fee and subsequent higher revenue highlight the network’s growing usability. However, many on Crypto Twitter argue that the extensive usage they are referring to is just a few thousand users gambling on memecoins. Some users reportedly paid gas fees as high as a few hundred dollars, while others complained about having to pay a higher gas fee than the actual transaction.
MEV Trading Bot Congestion
Another prominent reason for soaring gas fees has been blamed on a Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) trading bot, jaredfromsubway.eth. This bot has been front-running memecoin trades on a massive scale and has been the top gas spender in the last 24 hours, spending 455 ETH ($950,000) and using 7% of the total gas of the network. In the last two months, it spent more than 3,720 ETH ($7 million) in gas fees and performed more than 180,000 transactions. The Subway-themed bot is using the sandwich trading technique to pocket millions of dollars while congesting the network.
Conclusion
The Ethereum network’s gas fee has seen a sharp increase due to the memecoin frenzy, leading to mixed comments on the network’s usability. While some see this as a sign of growth and revenue generation, others are concerned about the network’s congestion and difficulty in processing transactions. With the MEV trading bot also contributing to the congestion, it remains to be seen how the network will respond to these challenges.
