Opeyemi savors his attraction to the crypto market, which explains why he spends the better parts of his day looking through different price charts. “Looking” is a rather simple way to describe analyzing and interpreting various price patterns and chart formations. However, it appears that is not Opeyemi’s favorite part – in fact, far from it.

Being able to connect what happens on a price chart to on-chain movements and blockchain activities is what keeps Opeyemi ticking. “This emphasizes the intricacies of blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency market,” he would say. Most importantly, Opeyemi thinks of any market insights as the gospel, while recognizing that he is only a messenger.

When he is not clicking away at his keyboard, Opeyemi is most definitely listening to music, playing games, reading a book, or scrolling through X. He likes to think he is not loyal to a particular genre of music, which can be true on many days. However, the fast-rising Afrobeats genre is a staple in Opeyemi’s Spotify Daily Mix.

Meanwhile, Opeyemi is a voracious reader who enjoys a wide category of books – ranging from science fiction, fantasy, and historical, to even romance. He believes that authors like George R. R. Martin and J. K.
Rowling are the greatest of all time when it comes to putting pen to paper. Opeyemi believes his reading of the Harry Potter series twice is proof of that.

Indeed, Opeyemi enjoys spending most of his time within the four walls of his home. However, he also sometimes finds solace in the company of his friends at a bar, a restaurant, or even on a stroll. In essence, Opeyemi’s ambivert (haha! been searching for an opportunity to use the word to describe myself) nature makes him a social chameleon who is able to quickly adapt to different settings.

Opeyemi recognizes the need to constantly develop oneself in order to stay afloat in a competitive and ever-evolving market like crypto. For this reason, he is always in learning mode, ready to pick up the slightest lesson from every situation. Opeyemi is efficient and likes to deliver all that is required of him in time – he believes that “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.” Hence, you will always find him striving to be better.

Ultimately, Opeyemi is a good writer and an even better person who is trying to shed light on an exciting world phenomenon – cryptocurrency. He goes to bed every day with a smile of satisfaction on his face, knowing that he has done his bit of the holy assignment – spreading the crypto gospel to the rest of the world.

On-chain data shows that Ethereum transaction fees have been rising again recently. Here’s what could be behind this trend.

Ethereum Average Fees Has Registered A Notable Uptick Recently

In a new insight post, the on-chain analytics firm Santiment talked about how the Ethereum network has recently become more expensive. The metric of interest here is the “Average Fees,” which keeps track of the average fees that ETH users are currently attaching with their transfers.

How much fees senders might be willing to pay comes down to the activity level the blockchain is witnessing. In times of high traffic, transfers can get stuck for a while, as ETH has only a limited capacity to handle transactions. Those looking to beat the crowd, thus, go with a higher-than-average fee.

This user competition is what governs how high the average would get. With little activity on the network, senders will go for the cheapest amount possible, as there isn’t much incentive to pay a high fee.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Ethereum Average Fees over the last few months:

Looks like the value of the metric has been heading up in recent days | Source: Santiment

As is visible above, the Ethereum Average Fee has been climbing recently and currently sits at $3.2, the highest level since early August. However, this previous spike in August, although great in scale, had lasted very briefly.

From the chart, it’s visible that this previous spike had coincided with the crash that the cryptocurrency had observed around then. Thus, the fee surge was because the investors had been making panic moves and were willing to pay high to get them done fast.

Before this spike, the last time a sustained trend in fees similar to the recent one had been observed was in late May. As such, the latest value of the metric has effectively been the highest point in four months.

Now, as for what’s behind this latest trend, an obvious reason would seem like the rally the asset has recently enjoyed. Sharp price action attracts attention, so the Average Fees generally go up.

However, details of the fee breakdown reveal that the normal Ethereum traders may not drive the increase.

The distribution of the ETH fees over the past week | Source: Santiment

As it turns out, Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) has recently been the token providing the largest contribution to network fees. As Santiment notes:

The dominance of WETH in fee contributions indicates that traders are heavily utilizing DeFi platforms, likely engaging in liquidity pools, trading, and other financial activities that require WETH as a base asset.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is floating around $2,700, up 5% over the last seven days.

The price of the coin seems to have been consolidating over the last few days | Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView

Featured image from Dall-E, Santiment.net, chart from TradingView.com

The market sentiment towards Ethereum (ETH) has turned relatively bearish, largely due to the cryptocurrency’s recent price volatility. This negative sentiment is evident in Ethereum’s new active addresses, having crashed by a whopping 43%, underscoring reduced network activity and investor confidence. 

New Active Addresses On Ethereum Decline

Data from The Block is showing notable fluctuations in Ethereum’s network activity, as the number of new active addresses has seen a sharp unexpected decline over the past three months. 

On June 27, new active addresses on the Ethereum network surged to 138,620 before dropping drastically to around 89,000 in the first few weeks of July. While the volume fluctuated between 80,000 and 95,000 in August, it soon jumped back above 100,000 at the end of the month.

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Despite Ethereum experiencing a significant uptick in its price recently, the new active addresses on its network dropped as low as 78,100 on September 24, marking a 23.43% crash. Currently, the number of new active addresses on Ethereum’s network is still below 80,000, reflecting more than a 44% crash from the last three months. 

Compared to June 9 when the total active addresses on the Ethereum network surged impressively to 702,857, the current number of addresses has declined by 5.69%. Moreover, on September 22, the total active address count fell drastically to 574,073, underscoring an 18.32% decrease from the previous June 9 high. 

Typically, when a crypto network experiences a drop in its new active address count, it indicates a decrease in user engagement, leading to a decline in the overall network activity and transaction volume. This decrease can be seen in the data provided by IntoTheBlock, which shows that the total volume of large transactions on the Ethereum network rose to 2.91 million on July 5, but declined to 1.79 million on September 29, reflecting a 38.4% drop. 

Despite the significant drop in new active addresses on Ethereum, market intelligence platform, Santiment has disclosed that the Ethereum network activity is finally picking up. However, this rise in network activity also coincides with a significant increase in gas fee levels. 

ETH Loses Top Spot In DEX Volume Rankings

On September 25, Ethereum lost its position as the top cryptocurrency with the highest 24-hours Decentralized Exchange (DEX) volume. Solana (SOL) had outperformed Ethereum, claiming the top spot with a 39.77% increase in its DEX volume, which climbed to $1.123 billion.

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At the time, Ethereum’s DEX volume was approximately $1.118 billion after recording a modest 8.92% surge. While Solana briefly stole the spotlight, Ethereum swiftly rebounded and has since held on to its leading position. 

As of writing, the cryptocurrency’s 24-hour DEX volume has surged by 11%, reaching $1.559 billion, according to DeFiLama. In contrast, Solana experienced a much larger increase of 32.94%, however, its volume still sits below Ethereum’s at $1.251 billion. 

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com