Over the weekend, the average gas price also jumped to 211.89 Gwei, and the maximum gas price well above 1 million Gwei. Daily transaction fees on the second-largest network also jumped back to 16,600 Ether, which, after the mid-August YAM debacle, was keeping around 7.5k Eth, as per Etherscan.

Despite these high gas prices, traders and investors are unperturbed with the price of Eth spiking over $437.8, up 229% YTD.

This price surge, however, has the total amount of Ether entering the exchanges rising up that could be to take off the profits.

“Yesterday, 1.46m ETH were deposit into some of the top centralized exchanges. This represents the highest volume since March 16,” noted IntoTheBlock. In the near term, this could put a sell pressure on the digital asset.

However, DeFi mania is getting stronger and stronger, which would only lead to growth in Ethereum. The market cap of the top 100 DeFi projects has already surpassed $18 billion.

Everybody understands cash flows. Not everybody can understand bitcoin. The DeFi revolution should eventually attract more capital than bitcoin itself.

— Alex (@classicmacro) August 31, 2020

In the DeFi world, DEXs are growing at warp speed; as we reported, Uniswap has recorded more volume than the popular centralized exchange Coinbase Pro for the second time in a row.

Other DEXs like Balancer, Curve, and 1nch are also performing very well than the CEXs that have multi-billion valuations while Ethereum is stuck at a $50 billion market capitalization.

Now, the market is even more excited and bullish on ETH, and it is because of yETH. The Ethereum vault on Yearn Finance not only “adds to a long list of catalysts for Ethereum, but it also reduces the available supply. Anyone who owns ETH can earn the best yield automatically by HODLing yETH,” notes Alex Saunders.

“It could also mean other protocols find it harder to compete with Ethereum when offering staking rewards.”

The sheer amount of eth that is going to get locked up in this @iearnfinance yETH vault I feel will be astronomical, not only bullish for $yfi but the juggernaut $eth itself.

I'm long both and I'm fucking excited.

— 👨‍🌾Farmer Bluntz👨‍🌾 (@SmartContracter) August 31, 2020

“ETH should continue to rise,” said trader Scott Melker, because,

“YFI (Yearn Finance) is allowing investors to stake their Ethereum in vaults and earn yield. The more people that do this, the more the supply of Ethereum is reduced, and the more demand is created.”

Traders and investors would need Ether to participate in DeFi, which is used for staking, trading, and to pay for gas fees, and so much usage translates into rising prices.

yETH vaults are coming.

You were too retarded to look into defi. You were too retarded to look into yield farming. You were too retarded to look into yfi.

You don’t even know why that’s bullish. You didn’t long eth heavy on the news of that catalyst. And now you’re still poor.

— CryptoGainz (@CryptoGainz1) August 31, 2020

Already, a record 5.2 million ETH are locked on the DeFi protocols, and the more Ether locked, the more the upwards pressure on the price of Ether.