U.Today - According to a recent tweet by IntoTheBlock on-chain data agency, fees this quarter have surged by a whopping 83%. Fees here refer to the money paid by users in order to execute a transaction or a smart contract on the ETH network. In May, they totaled a staggering $829 million.
The IntoTheBlock team named meme token speculation as one of the major drivers for high Ethereum fees in May.
Among the most popular meme coins are Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. However, in April, Pepe Coin (PEPE) emerged, made by an anonymous team with no utility. Unlike canine tokens, like DOGE, SHIB and FLOKI, Pepe was inspired by the Pepe the Frog internet meme.
PEPE secured multiple listings on major exchanges, including Binance, adding it to its Innovation Zone along with Floki. Pepe is a classic ERC20 token, which means it was launched on the Ethereum chain, as with many other small cap meme coins. Their trading volumes were high in May, especially those of PEPE, as it managed to surpass SHIB (also running on Ethereum) and DOGE, hence, the high volume of ETH fees.
In June, however, as covered by U.Today, Ethereum fees saw a plunge of 16.5% and comprised $59 million in fiat equivalent.
A week ago, PEPE began growing and quickly as the crypto market began to rebound after a fall that preceded the new rise.