#Write2Earn‬ #Ethereum #Burn Rate Soars: $63M ETH Vanishes in Two Weeks $ETH

Over the last couple of weeks, Ethereum saw roughly $63 million worth of ETH disappear from circulation. This drop in available Ether comes as gas fees shot up, increasing the rate at which Ethereum is being burnt.

According to data from Ultra Sound Money, there's now less than 120.16 million Ether available, with over 21,000 ETH (equivalent to $62.8 million) going up in smoke during the past fortnight. Since the implementation of Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade, also known as The Merge, in September 2022, Ether's supply has dwindled by 362,628 ETH.

The Shanghai upgrade moved Ethereum to Proof of Stake consensus, which drastically slashed new Ether issuance by about 90%. Despite over 1.05 million ETH being added through rewards for stakers post-Merge, Ethereum's burn mechanism has permanently removed over 1.4 million ETH during the same timeframe.

The surge in transaction fees is linked to a rise in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volumes amidst bullish sentiment in the crypto markets, alongside heightened activity in NFT sales and on Layer 2 networks.

DEXes have handled trades exceeding $5 billion in the last 24 hours, a 134% increase since February 4th, as reported by #DeFi Llama. Concurrently, #NFT trading volume soared to $33 million on February 19th, marking a 114% surge since February 2nd, according to data from Dune Analytics.

Activity on Layer 2 networks is also heating up, contributing to congestion on the Ethereum mainnet as L2 transactions are finalized on the base layer. Data from L2beat reveals that combined Layer 2 throughput hit its second-highest level on record during February 17th and 18th, with L2s processing more than 92.4 transactions per second on average.

Average transaction fees have doubled over the past three days, according to Etherscan.