The digital asset space finally sees another new high coming from Ethereum with a whopping $1,700 as the price mark. Interestingly, the price is not the only thing that surged; the platform’s gas fee skyrocketed as well, linked to activities associated with DeFi and stablecoins, which drove the network’s transaction fee to a new average.

Many experts predicted the new surge due to the new trading volumes and investors the crypto had. Both institutional and retail investors are interested in the altcoin, especially since it outperformed Bitcoin within the last few weeks. While most assets struggled to record notable gains after the price corrections, Ethereum recovered quickly alongside Bitcoin.

The Ethereum network’s gas fee skyrockets

The popularly used network still struggles with scalability problems, especially with more activities coming within the platform. The scalability problems prompted Ethereum 2.0’s creation, which is currently in its planning phases before the final transfer into the newly created network.

Fortunately, Ethereum network creators presently offer temporary solutions to manage the challenges users face while easing the processes and reducing gas fees. Even with the team’s efforts, the network’s transaction fees still skyrockets. Traders and other stakeholders urged the creators to find a lasting solution that would ensure ease and stop the high transaction fees, which the venue currently demands.

A popular analytics firm, BitInfoCharts, revealed that the network now sees an average transaction fee of over $22, which is a concern to many users. The new fee is an ATH, which surpasses the previous gas fee within the $2 range. Many crypto users have gone on social media, such as Twitter, to speak on the ridiculous transaction fees.

One, which got the attention of many people is @IamOliveAllen’s comment on the fees. The user revealed that the network charged $5,000 to accept a bid while asking if the high transaction fee was caused by ETH’s gas fee or a bug in the system.

Scalability is still an issue for the network

While charging exorbitant gas fees, the network still delays thousands of transactions. The mempool’s pending transaction is almost 200,000, showing that the network’s activities have worsened scalability issues. Statistics show that Uniswap accounts actively utilize the Ethereum network and share a significant part of the gas fees. Following the new highs, decentralized exchange tokens see, the DEX has used thousands of ETH within the past month, around $33 million.

The second digital asset with high transactions on the network would be Tether, having used 19,200 ETH or $24 million. 1inch utilized 6,000 ETH, while SushiSwap used around 3,000 ETH. Fortunately, the high gas fee might have triggered a new high for Ethereum.

ETH overcame the $1,700 point by extending towards $1,740. The asset’s net gain is not surprising since it skyrocketed within the December and January periods. Now, the digital asset has a total market capitalization of about $200 billion, far higher than its 2020’s 70 billion market cap in early December.