The value of the Ethereum transaction settled from July to September of this year was $ 536.5 billion. That’s an increase of 398% from the same period in 2020. That is not the only impressive statistic to emerge from the world’s largest smart contract platform’s third quarterly results.
Total transaction fees paid by users to miners increased 511% year over year, which was good news for miners but not so much for those who use the network. Network revenue for the period was a whopping $1.96 billion, up from just $321 million for Q3, 2020.
The report also noted that 68% of those fees were burned following the deployment of EIP-1559 in August. At the time of writing, more than 710,600 ETH had been burnt worth an estimated $3 billion at current prices. At the end of last week, Ethereum had its first beacon chain upgrade called Altair.
Declining Issuance
Ethereum’s issuance rate has also fallen by 29%. The report states that the rate of expansion of ETH supply during the period increased from 1.11% in the third quarter of 2020 to 0.79% in the third quarter of 2021. The Ultrasound.Money tracker currently reports an inflation rate of 2.1% per year. This is expected to drop to a deflationary level of -2% per annum once the “merger” takes place and the network moves to proof of stake.
The number of daily active addresses increased by 24% from the same period last year to 457,402. The hash rate also climbed 180% from the third quarter of 2020. They are currently near record highs, with an average daily hash rate of 785 TH/s (terahashes per second).
The Ethereum ecosystem has also grown significantly over the period, especially for DeFi and NFTs. Total value locked in DeFi surged 1,242% year on year, and decentralized exchange volumes grew by 242% for the period.
Stablecoin issuance also jumped 405% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. It reported that the amount of Bitcoin tokenized on Ethereum has climbed 133% from 123,500 in Q3 2020 to 288,234 in the same period this year.
Ethereum cools from ATH
Ethereum prices are currently cooling slightly after hitting a new high of $ 4,467 on October 29. ETH is currently trading down 3.2% on the day at $4,300, according to CoinGecko.
The asset has made 1000% gains over the past 12 months – around the same time last year, ETH was changing hands for just under $ 400.
