According to cryptocurrency analytics platform CryptoQuant, Ethereum’s transaction fees have been consistently more expensive than those of Bitcoin over the past few months.
The graph shared by CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju shows that Bitcoin’s media fees (orange bars) have consistently remained in the $0.50-$3.00 range. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s fees (gray bars) tend to stay between $3 and $6.
ETH tx fees are higher than #Bitcoin’s. Just saying 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/PXEPfEiRlo
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) January 17, 2025
Both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks kicked off the year with relatively low fees under $3.
On Thursday, a total of 400 BTC (roughly $39 million) was mined within 128 blocks. Miners earned only $731,000 worth of fees.
For comparison, Ethereum users paid a total of $3.2 million in fees yesterday. The network’s fees experienced a 41% drop over the past 30 days.
Profit squeeze
Last year, the Bitcoin network experienced a halving event, with the block reward reduced to just 3.125 BTC.
There were some concerns about whether or not some miners would be able to remain operational due to declining profits.
In April, Bitcoin fees spiked as high as $128 per transaction due to the popularity of Runes. However, this spike has provided miners with only very short-lived relief. The fees ended up plunging by more than 90% by early May.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that U.S.-based Bitcoin companies had started accumulating Bitcoin to mitigate the impact of tightening margins. Despite the fact that the price of Bitcoin has increased significantly, Bitcoin miners are still struggling with profitability. The industry has now spent nearly $2 billion over the past two months on Bitcoin purchases.
