Ethereum 's daily transaction fees plummeted to the lowest point since September 2024, as reported by Token Terminal. The blockchain network recorded a mere $731,472 in daily fees on February 8, 2023, marking a significant decline from previous months.

This downturn in daily revenue is reminiscent of the period between August 17 and September 8, 2024, when the fees consistently stayed below the $1 million mark, a scenario last observed in November 2020.

Despite the approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in major markets, including the US and Hong Kong, Ether (ETH), Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, has not reached new highs in the past year, lagging behind Bitcoin . The global cryptocurrency market has been experiencing downturns, exacerbated by trade tensions.

A contributing factor to Ether's underperformance is the increasing supply of the cryptocurrency. Since April 2024, Ethereum's supply has been on an upward trajectory, surpassing the levels seen before the implementation of the Merge in September 2022.

The Merge was a significant update that transitioned Ethereum from a mining-based issuance to a proof-of-stake model, which was expected to reduce the supply inflation rate.

Additionally, the London hard fork in August 2021 introduced a fee-burning mechanism that could potentially make ETH deflationary during times of high network activity. However, the recent increase in supply has reversed the deflationary trend.

Layer-2 solutions, aimed at scaling Ethereum and reducing fees, have diverted activity away from the main blockchain, leading to reduced congestion and fee spikes. However, this shift has raised concerns about interoperability and a fragmented ecosystem within Ethereum.

Meanwhile, competitors like Tron and Solana have been outperforming Ethereum in terms of total fees generated over the past three months.

Internal conflicts within the Ethereum Foundation have added to the network's challenges. In January, co-founder Vitalik Buterin assumed sole leadership of the organization amid controversies involving executive director Aya Miyaguchi and potential conflicts of interest with researchers.

Despite these issues, Ethereum supporters have shown resilience. On February 7, accumulation addresses acquired 330,705 ETH, valued at approximately $833 million, marking the largest single-day inflow recorded by CryptoQuant.

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