In the first week of June, the average gas fee or transaction fee on the Ethereum network has significantly dropped compared to the multi-month high it reached in May.
The average gas fee has decreased to $7.34, which is almost one-third of the high of $20 seen last month. In terms of gwei, which represents one-billionth of one Ether (ETH), the daily median gas price has decreased to 24 gwei from a peak of nearly 140 gwei in May.
The increase in gas fees in May was primarily driven by the memecoin frenzy and the activities of maximal extractable value (MEV) bots. The memecoin frenzy started in late April and continued into May, with several new memecoins entering the market. This high level of memecoin activity caused a shift in the top 10 gas-burning altcoins, with memecoins like Troll (TROLL), APED, and BOBO surpassing Ethereum, Wrapped Ether (WETH), and Tether (USDT) in terms of gas consumption.
Another factor contributing to the rise in Ethereum gas fees was the growing popularity of memecoins on decentralized platforms, with centralized exchanges taking longer to list them.
In addition to the memecoin frenzy, Bitcoin Ordinals also gained significant popularity in May. Ordinals enable the decentralized storage of digital art on the Bitcoin blockchain. As a result, many new memecoins were registered on the Bitcoin network, with Pepecoin (PEPE) achieving a billion-dollar market capitalization.
The number of Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain surpassed 10 million by the end of May, and the total fees paid for Ordinals rose by 700% to reach 1,639 Bitcoin.
As the memecoin frenzy subsides, Ethereum gas fees have cooled down, and Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain have also decreased significantly.
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