Ethereum transaction fees plummet 70%, hitting lowest levels since 2020

The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of transaction fees on the Ethereum network fell to $0.77 on Feb. 15. This figure stood at $2.57 just a week prior, marking a 70% week-over-week drop. 

This drop pushed transaction costs to their lowest levels in dollar terms in over four years, which means the last time it was this cheap to transact on Ethereum was July 2020. Meanwhile, Bitcoin network activity recently hit a 12-month low as transactions dropped 55% from their peak.

The median gas price on Ethereum, measured in Gwei, further confirms this trend. Over the past week, the daily median gas price averaged 1.61 GWEI, with its lowest figure coming in at 1.19 GWEI on Saturday, Feb. 15, the lowest reading since The Block began tracking this metric in January 2020. Moreover, this is just one of two instances where this figure has stooped this low since January 2020, with the other occurring in September 2024.

While falling fees typically encourage user activity, the extent of this drop, represented by a prolonged decline, suggests a broader lack of demand rather than improved network efficiency, as seen with a recent slowdown in Ethereum’s onchain activity. The 7DMA of Ethereum’s onchain volume fell to just $4.19 billion on Saturday, a 46% decline from the previous week. This represents Ethereum’s lowest daily volume since Nov. 7, right after the U.S. presidential election.

We’ve talked about Ethereum’s woes extensively in recent weeks, and just when you thought things could not look any worse from the perspective of the blockchain’s activity, these unpleasant surprises continue to display themselves every week.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.