Just Like Price of ETH, Ethereum Usage Is Seeing Consistent Growth

Ether is enjoying a positive price action as it surged back to the $2,350 level today after the weekend sell-off to $2,000.

With Bitcoin taken to ranging, it is turning out to be bullish for Ether and altcoins. As such, the Ether price is going up against Bitcoin as well and is now worth more than 0.04 BTC. BTC -3.19% Bitcoin / USD BTCUSD $ 26,896.48
-$858.00-3.19% Volume 20.17 b Change -$858.00 Open $26,896.48 Circulating 19.33 m Market Cap 519.92 b 1 y SEC Commissioner says NFTs Might Fall Within Their Jurisdiction, Gensler Hires Senate Aid for Crypto Policy 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum

This increased price momentum comes along with the record volume on CME Group. For most of April, Ether futures on CME, which were launched in early Feb., has constantly been recording increasing volumes.

CME ether futures saw record volumes on Monday pic.twitter.com/H9vWGye5HX

— skew (@skewdotcom) April 21, 2021

Much like the price, the network fundamentals are just as bullish, with the hash rate on the network on an uptrend ever since December 2019.

Unique addresses have also been only growing, now past 148.5 million. Daily transactions also hit a new ATH at 1.5 million this week versus 1.35 million on Jan. 4, 2018.

Average gas fees on the network continuously keep above 150 Gwei with several significant upticks along the way, which first gained momentum during DeFi summer, as per Etherscan.

While the high fees on the second-largest network continue to price out the smaller users due to high activity on the platform, it goes without saying people are still using it and paying the fees.

“You pay high fees now because it’s the most useful chain by far. The catalysts coming will be the most obvious in retrospect,” said Kyle Davies, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital.

The consistent growth in usage can further be seen in transactions settled by the Ethereum blockchain, which has reached $1.5 trillion in transactions in Q1 2021.

Ethereum settled $1.5 trillion in transactions in Q1 2021.

That’s more than it’s previous 7 quarters combined. pic.twitter.com/B1FJw54YGA

— Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) April 21, 2021

While other blockchains are also gaining traction and seeing usage such as BSC, Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), and others, heightened activity makes them vulnerable just as much as Ethereum. As we reported, BSC is now overloaded that is making the popular project on it, AMM, PancakeSwap slow down and is now asking its users to use more gas. BNB -5.71% BNB / USD BNBUSD $ 309.82
-$17.69-5.71% Volume 737.94 m Change -$17.69 Open $309.82 Circulating 157.89 m Market Cap 48.92 b 1 y SEC Rejects Another Spot Bitcoin ETF, Binance Announces New System to Remove BNB from Circulation 1 y BitMEX Launches BMEX Token for Active Users, US Not Eligible for Airdrop 1 y Crypto Outliers: Terra (LUNA) Amasses $16.9 Bln & Surpass BSC, Avalanche (AVAX) Aims for 1 Million Daily Transactions DOT -1.91% Polkadot / USD DOTUSD $ 5.94
-$0.11-1.91% Volume 156.66 m Change -$0.11 Open $5.94 Circulating 1.17 b Market Cap 6.96 b 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows 1 y SBI Holdings to Launch Japan’s First Crypto Fund; Including BTC, ETH, DOT, LINK, LTC, XRP & BCH 1 y Solana Unaffected by Price Jitters while Bitcoin, Ether, Polkadot, and Cardano Post Outflows SOL -3.11% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 19.98
-$0.62-3.11% Volume 387.52 m Change -$0.62 Open $19.98 Circulating 384.02 m Market Cap 7.67 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows CAKE -4.38% PancakeSwap / USD CAKEUSD $ 3.57
-$0.16-4.38% Volume 45.76 m Change -$0.16 Open $3.57 Circulating 182.39 m Market Cap 651.59 m 1 y Cream Finance Offers the Attacker 10% of Stolen Fund as Bug Bounty on Return of Funds 1 y DeFi Rallies Towards New Highs As Multiple Layer 1 Blockchains Amaas $50 Billion in TVL 1 y SEC Creates A Stand-Alone Office to Conduct Investigations into Crypto and Other Digital Assets: Report

So, Ethereum remains the leader in the space, and with L2 solutions and ETH 2.0 coming up, it is working on the scalability issues.

For ETH 2.0, staking is already underway, with over 3.9 million ETH deposits already made. Staked ETH gets to earn validator rewards and MEV, which are just more financial reasons to hold ETH.

Meanwhile, EIP-1559 that will burn transaction fees will create a positive feedback loop for its prices, which is the biggest upgrade the community is eagerly awaiting.