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With just over two weeks until The Merge, Ethereum network fees have reduced significantly as the average ethereum transfer fee has dropped to 0.00092 Ether or $1.37 per transaction on August 28th. Median size fees have dropped to 0.00036 ether or $0.544 per transfer, and etherscan .io’s gas tracking tool notes that a priority fee will cost 11 gwei or $0.34 to have a transaction confirmed in about 30 seconds.
On August 16, the Ethereum Foundation updated a previously published blog post to make it clear that The Merge would not reduce gas fees and improve throughput. While The Merge is a little more than two weeks away, Ethereum gas fees have been far more affordable than they were before mid-June.
At the time, in mid-June, Ethereum’s average gas fees began to drop from $3.86 per transaction to 0.00086 ether or $1.46 per transfer during the first week of August. Gas fees are even lower today, as the average fee is currently 0.00092 ether or $1.37 per transaction, according to data from bitinfocharts.com.
Bitinfocharts.com calculations further show that the average Ethereum fee on Sunday is 0.00036 Ether or $0.544 per transaction. Etherscan.io data shows gas prices are lower, according to the site’s dedicated gas tracking tool.
Currently, as of 16:30 (EST) on August 28, 2022, the highest “priority” gas fee according to etherscan.io is 11 gwei or $0.34 per transfer. An Opensea settlement will cost $1.17 per transaction, a Uniswap trade will cost a user $3.03 using the priority transfer setting, and to send an ERC20 token like tether (USDT), etherscan.io estimates the cost to be around $0.89 per transaction.
While the ETH fees are lower, they are twice the size of bitcoin’s (BTC) average transfer fees, which are 0.000039 BTC or $0.785 per transaction on Sunday. Median size fees on the Bitcoin blockchain are 0.000013 BTC or $0.258 per transaction, which is also lower than ETH’s median size transfer fees.
In terms of 24-hour rewards, ETH miners earned $41,107,170 in block rewards, while BTC miners earned $35,976,600 in block rewards plus transaction fees. As onchain Ethereum data fees have dropped a lot, it is still much cheaper to transact via Ethereum compatible layer two (L2) payment rails.
Metis Network is the cheapest transfer fee today as l2fees.info indicates that the estimated cost to transfer ether via Metis is $0.01 per transfer and to exchange coins via Metis it is around $0.06 per transaction. A Loopring ether transaction will cost an estimated $0.03 per transfer; to trade via Loopring, the estimated cost of L2 is $0.37 per transaction.
L2 fees via Zksync, Arbitrum, Boba Network, Optimism, Aztec Network and Polygon Hermez are all lower than on-chain transfer fees. Exchange fees via these networks are also less expensive than chain exchange fees via a traditional trade on a decentralized exchange (dex) such as Uniswap.
What do you think about Ethereum network fees remaining low before The Merge? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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