At the end of August, Ethereum network gas costs skyrocketed and tapped a high of $59 per transaction on September 7, according to the average transaction fee spent on that day. The median fee for an ether transaction on September 7 was around $20 per transaction. Days later, ether transaction fees have subsided to a degree as the median and average ether fees have been slashed in half since then.
Ethereum Fees Subside, Transfer Costs Less Expensive
One of the biggest complaints people have with digital currencies is how much the transaction fee can cost to send these assets. Critics don’t care for the fact that Layer 1 bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) transactions can be quite costly and unpredictable as well. The common answer for bitcoiners is the Layer 2 protocol the Lightning Network, but there are also Layer 2 schemes for ethereum (ETH) transactions.
First off, a Layer 1 transaction that is settled onchain will cost an ethereum user between $3.39 to $18.74 per transaction. The $3.39 quote is for a very low priority transaction according to Etherscan gas tracker statistics and the $18.74 stems from the metrics recorded for an average ethereum transaction, according to bitinfocharts.com. The same website also tracks the median-sized ether fee which is $9.29 at the time of writing. Data from the website l2fees.info indicates that a Layer 2 ethereum fee is currently $4.46 per transaction.
These fees don’t account for smart contract interactions which can be more costly. For instance, Etherscan gas tracker stats show a common ERC20 transfer is $10.48 and using Uniswap can cost a person $32.25 at the time of writing. This means moving
