Crypto valuations haven’t been the only casualties of this week’s market crash; crypto networks have also felt the strain. As onchain activity has ramped up in response to the market slump, fees have soared and the mempool filled on the BTC and ETH chains. Other crypto networks have operated smoothly, however, despite the pandemonium.
Also read: Market Update: Cryptocurrency Market Cap Sheds $90B, Margin Calls Spike, Futures Slide
Mempool Fills on Bitcoin’s Most Volatile Day in a Year
As bitcoin lost 50% of its value on Black Thursday, traders rushed to move coins out of cold storage and swap them for stablecoins on crypto exchanges. The increased network activity fueled a surge in BTC and ETH fees, which were significantly higher than usual on March 12-13.
On Thursday, gas prices passed $3.70 on Ethereum, while Bitcoin’s mempool was backed up with enough transactions to fill over 30 blocks. The congestion on both networks has since abated, with ETH gas prices back to just over 2 cents and the mempool down from 120,000 unconfirmed transactions on its March 12 peak to the daily average of 70,000 at press time. BTC fees, meanwhile, which rose to 75 sats/byte for 1-2 block inclusion on March 13, are down to ~60sats/byte, which is still more than double their weekly average.
Bitcoin Cash and Dogecoin Networks Keep Ticking Over
Fees on Bitcoin Cash have remained low all week, despite the increase in exchange inflows and outflows. At press time, the BCH
