David Edwards
Despite soaring cryptocurrency prices, network fees for Ethereum and Bitcoin have been steadily declining over the past month, entering 2025 at all-time lows. Both networks’ average onchain transaction costs stay below $2, providing consumers with an affordable environment.
Bitcoin Charges: A Constant Decline
The average charge for a Bitcoin transaction was $1.40 as of the first week of January 2025. Sending Bitcoin now costs 0.000013 BTC, or $1.34, or around 5 satoshis per byte. This is a substantial decrease from the $3.085 monthly average that was seen between December 7, 2024, and January 5, 2025.
December 2, 2024, saw the highest average charge for Bitcoin during the previous month, $5.93, while November 17, 2024, saw the lowest fee, $1.43. Interestingly, despite the network handling an increasing backlog of 189,794 unconfirmed transactions, the median fee for Bitcoin transfers is at a low $0.57.
Ethereum Fees: Always Declining
The onchain transaction fees for Ethereum are still trending lower than those of Bitcoin. As of the first few days of 2025, the 30-day average is $1.093, with a minor increase to $1.104.
Ethereum had its lowest average fee of $0.7158 on November 29, 2024, and its highest fee of $1.606 on December 9, 2024. The average gas fee for Ethereum as of January 6, 2025, is 19.76 gwei, or $1.88 per transaction.
It’s crucial to remember that these numbers represent simple ether transactions. Ethereum’s decentralized exchange (DEX) swaps are substantially more expensive, averaging $27.97 per transaction. Bridging charges are about $8.99, whereas onchain NFT sales fetch fees of about $47.26.
Consequences for Users
For users of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the low cost environment is a positive development, especially given the growing activity of the networks. Ethereum is still the less expensive choice for simple transfers, even if its fees have decreased by half in the last 30 days. However, it charges more for more complicated transactions, such as DEX swaps and NFT trades.
Keeping costs low throughout the year may promote more transactions, so reinforcing these networks’ positions as vital foundations of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
