Ethereum witnessed a surge in positive market sentiment following Bitcoin’s rise above $64k, boosting overall bullishness in the crypto space.
The recent gains beyond the $64k mark instilled optimism, as this level had posed a significant resistance for BTC in recent times.
While Ethereum’s average fees have spiked nearly 12 times since late August, the price surge might help alleviate concerns among users. However, the decrease in the asset’s market dominance raised some alarms despite the positive price trends.
Steady Rise in Ethereum Fees
Santiment, a crypto data analytics platform, pointed out in a recent post that Ethereum’s average fees have been consistently climbing over the past month.
Simultaneously, Ethereum’s price has also seen a notable 17.69% increase since hitting a low on September 16th.
The steady price uptick probably overshadowed discussions on the increasing fees. Nevertheless, the jump from an average fee of $0.29 on August 31st to $3.61 on September 24th marked a significant elevation.
While the fees have slightly dropped to an average of $2.18 in recent days, the overall social sentiment has turned more positive alongside slight growth in social media activity during September—a minor win for Ethereum enthusiasts.
Transaction Count Rise alongside Fees
Despite the rise in network fees, the network activity has not witnessed a proportional increase.
Although the transaction volume has gone up by about 10%, the daily active addresses and overall network expansion have shown a downward trend over the past three weeks.
This could be attributed to a higher base fee compared to August, possibly due to increased activities like NFT minting, or users opting to pay higher fees for faster transaction processing.