According to bitinfocharts.com, conducting transactions on the Ethereum blockchain has become notably more economical this week, with the average cost now hovering around 0.00065 ETH, equivalent to $1.91 per transaction. Additionally, basic ETH transfers currently range between 4 and 7 gwei, or $0.18 to $0.37 per transfer, based on data from etherscan.io's gas tracker.

Engaging in decentralized exchange (dex) swaps on Ethereum over the weekend might cost between an estimated $4.16 and $7.28, while conducting an NFT sale could range from $7.03 to $12.31. Over the last 50 days, Ethereum has seen an average of slightly over one million transactions daily. The peak activity day was March 22, 2024, recording 1.324 million transactions, while the lowest was April 4, 2024, with 1.091 million transactions. The average daily transaction count during this period stands at approximately 1.212 million.

Inflationary Ether and Ethereum Burn

Data from ultrasound.money reveals that Ethereum is currently experiencing an annual inflation rate of 0.895%. However, if Ethereum had not transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system, the annual issuance rate under PoW would have been 3.923%. Additionally, it has been 1,010 days since the London fork on August 5, 2021.

The London upgrade introduced Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559, altering the gas fee structure by introducing a stable base fee that is burned, removing it permanently from circulation. Since this implementation, 4.29 million ETH, valued at $12.51 billion, has been burned to date. While reduced fees benefit users, they present financial challenges for ETH validators as Ethereum undergoes its inflationary phase.

These lower fees impact the economic incentives associated with network security. In contrast, Bitcoin has witnessed over 100 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashpower leaving since the last halving due to its declining hashprice. This underscores the delicate balance between ensuring affordability for user adoption and providing adequate compensation for validators as Ethereum evolves its monetary policy and transaction cost structure.