Gas prices have reached the pre-Denkun level.
A handful of traders are behind the sudden jump.
Memecoins seem to be the main culprits behind the price spike.
#Ethereum released the long-awaited Dencun update to its core network this month, much to the delight of users. The update was supposed to be a major step towards the expansion of the network, promising to instantly scale up second tiers like Base and usher in a new era of use cases.
Initially, the upgrade lived up to its expectations, significantly reducing Base's gas consumption by 99% and increasing the daily transaction volume on the network by five times. However, once L2 took advantage of the exceptionally low rates and subsequent network activity, gas prices #rose .
The Ethereum Dencun update has significantly revitalized the Layer 2 ecosystem, allowing platforms like Base to reach new heights thanks to guaranteed low fees.
Prior to the Dencun update, Base had around 440,000 transactions per day. However, after the update, that number rose to 2 million transactions. There were no signs of the network slowing down and it was ready to reach new heights.
However, on March 20, gas prices increased by 2,000%, reaching an average of $2 on the congested network. Commissions were then restored to the usual $0.2 level and trading calmed down, but they rose again over the weekend, reaching $1.9 (up 1,100%).
Average transaction fee on tier 2 networks
Average transaction fee on tier 2 networks Source: dune
Interestingly, while Base's commissions were growing like a roller coaster, the commissions of other second-tier networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and ZKsync remained relatively stable at less than $BTC Miner Michael Silberling quickly noticed this discrepancy and linked it to three anonymous contracts involved in high-frequency mimcoin trading.
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