Avalanche fees spike to $10 as backers ironically criticize Ethereum

Transactions fees on the Avalanche blockchain surged to record highs yesterday, briefly reaching as high as $10.

And while $10 seems like a bargain when compared to the astronomical fees users often encounter on Ethereum, many found the 10x increase in transaction costs unacceptable for a blockchain coveted for its affordability.

Avalanche keeps breaking its own records, transaction costs included

Avalanche has been on quite a roll this month, breaking almost every record it has set since it began its rally in September. It has quickly become the talk of the town, with tens of thousands of new users and investors flocking to the platform. Avalanche recorded a new ATH on Monday, reaching as high as $144.

avaxusd — Graph showing the price of AVAX (Source: TradingView CryptoSlate)

However, it seems that the rapid growth Avalanche has experienced came at a cost. Namely, the massive price growth its native AVAX token experienced pushed a significant number of new users to the platform, which in turn drove its traffic through the roof.

Data from Snowtrace showed that the network processed more than 669,000 transactions on Monday, double what it recorded at the beginning of the month.

avax daily transactions — Graph showing the daily transactions on Avalanche’s C-Chain (Source: Snowtrace.io)

An increase in traffic came with a significant increase in transaction fees. The total gas used on the network exceeded 92 billion at the beginning of the week. With the average gas fee reaching 153 nAVAX (or 0.000000001 AVAX), the network processed over $2 million in transaction fees in a single day.

avax gas used — Graph showing the daily gas used on Avalanche’s C-Chain (Source: Snowtrace.io)

Kevin Sekniqi, the chief protocol architect at Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche, said that transfers on the blockchain have actually remained at their usual low of around $1. Avalanche has a cap on 10 million gas every 10 seconds, which pushed the cost of gas through the roof once the cap was met, he explained on Twitter.

The cost of transferring tokens on Avalanche has remained at its usual low of just over $1, while swaps saw their costs increase by as much as 16x.

1/ So this stops right in its tracks, here are the *actual* real prices of swaps + transfers between Avalanche and Ethereum at the gas fees at this very moment.

Swap:
– AVAX $8.40
– ETH $101.60

Transfer:
– AVAX $1.18
– ETH $14.12

Other numbers are wallet UI issues. pic.twitter.com/oCZroKyOPO

— ./kevinsekniqi 🔺 good vibes only (@kevinsekniqi) November 22, 2021