U.Today – On-chain analytics startup reports a spike in on-chain activity this week as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rallied to new annual highs.
As a result, the Bitcoin network saw a significant 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 rise in the price of bitcoin, which saw the cryptocurrency hit an annual high of $45,000 on December 5 before settling above $43,000, where it currently trades, and an increase in bitcoin inscriptions, which increased demand for network capacity.
Because of the popularity of inscriptions, the cost of sending a bitcoin transaction has increased.
Total Bitcoin fees for the week were $43.8 million, an increase of 61.4%. Ethereum’s total fees amounted to $83.3 million, representing a 48.3% growth, according to IntoTheBlock data.
In today’s trading, Ethereum bitcoin in daily gains, reaching new annual highs of $2,390. ETH went up 4.58% in the last 24 hours, reaching $2,360 at the time of writing. In the same time frame, bitcoin gained just 1.26% to $43,937.
Despite the recent bullish rise to new yearly highs, IntoTheBlock sees a worrying sign for Ethereum. It notes that Ethereum is not experiencing a major surge in new users, as the number of new addresses and the new adoption rate are not showing 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 ETH supply, up from 22% in January.
