Ethereum (ETH) is facing a significant drop in network transaction fees, with fees now at their lowest in the past six months. Amid a slight increase in the main network asset ETH’s price over the weekend, this development has led analysts to speculate about a potential rise in altcoins soon. According to the crypto analysis platform Santiment, the average fee for an Ethereum transaction dropped to $1.12 on April 27, marking a notable decrease as highlighted in Santiment’s latest post.
Transaction Fee Decline
Santiment‘s analysis suggests that changes in Ethereum network transaction fees often reflect market sentiment shifts, with peaks associated with local market highs and subsequent declines potentially indicating market lows. Therefore, the recent drop in transaction fees could signal an upcoming revival in Ethereum’s network activity and, most importantly, might herald the start of a potential altcoin rally.
Transaction fees reached their highest level in eight months in February, largely due to increased interest in an experimental token standard, ERC-404. However, the current drop in transaction fees indicates a significant change in demand dynamics and could potentially lead to an earlier than expected resurgence in ETH and related altcoins.
According to CoinGecko’s data, this development coincided with a modest 4.3% increase in ETH’s price over the past week. Additionally, leading Ethereum Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon were among the top five best-performing altcoins in the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market value on April 27, showing notable performance.
ETH Burn Rates Slow Down
On the other hand, despite reduced network activity last month, there was a significant increase in Ethereum’s circulating supply. According to data from Ultrasound.money, 74,458 new ETH were issued, with only 57,516 units burned. This resulted in a net increase of 16,979 ETH in the supply over the last 30 days, contrasting sharply with the steady deflation trend observed over the past five months.
Despite the recent increase in ETH-based inflation, the Ethereum network has faced significant coin burning activity since the transition to the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism known as The Merge in September 2022. Since this transition, more than 437,000 ETH have been burned, removing them from circulation and representing a strong effort to manage and stabilize the network’s supply dynamics.
