Bitcoin, Ethereum Fees Rise in Tandem as On-chain Activity Spikes

On-chain analytics start-up IntoTheBlock reports an on-chain activity spike thisweek as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rallied to new yearly highs.

As a result, the Bitcoin network saw a large increase in transaction fees, surpassing Ethereum’s total fees. In this comparison, Bitcoin fees increased by 60%, while Ethereum fees increased by nearly 50%.

A combination of factors appears to be driving the increase in network fees for Bitcoin, including a Bitcoin price climb that saw the cryptocurrency reach yearly highs of $45,000 on Dec. 5 before settling above $43,000, where it presently traded, and an uptick in Bitcoin Inscriptions, which increased demand for network capacity.

Because of the popularity of inscriptions, the cost of sending a Bitcoin transaction has risen.

Bitcoin’s total fees for the week amounted to $43.8 million, representing a 61.4% increase. Ethereum total fees amounted to $83.3 million, which represents 48.3% growth, according to IntoTheBlock data.

In today’s trading, Ethereum surpassed Bitcoin in daily gains, reaching new yearly highs of $2,390. ETH went up 4.58% in the last 24 hours to $2,360 at the time of writing. In this time frame, Bitcoin was only up 1.26% to $43,937.

Despite its recent bullish climb to new yearly highs, IntoTheBlock sees a worrying indication for Ethereum. It observes that Ethereum is not experiencing a major surge of new users, as the number of new addresses and the new adoption rate show no significant spikes.

Despite this, Ethereum is the only major layer-1 network where the percentage of supply held by whales has increased significantly. According to IntoTheBlock, whales now hold 35% of the ETH supply, up from 22% in January.