$25M in DeFi Loans Liquidated as Ether Price Falls

$25M in DeFi Loans Liquidated as Ether Price Falls

Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platforms liquidated some $25 million in assets Monday as the price of ether plummeted as much as 15% to $1,655 before somewhat rebounding, according to the CoinDesk 20. That’s the highest amount in three months since Nov. 25 saw $93 million in liquidations.

Ethereum mining’s monthly revenue reaches all time high over $1 billion in February

Data collected by The Block Research shows that, for the first time, Ethereum miners have brought in more than $1 billion in revenue for the month of February.

That includes approximately $541 million in the form of transaction fees, which miners earn with every new block they successfully create. The fee income has been buoyed by elevated transaction fees on the Ethereum network as well as all-time-high price increases this month.

The February figure – which is set to grow given the remaining days of the month – eclipses January’s total, and is the highest recorded for the data set. It also, perhaps, reflects the surging environment for ETH mining, as demonstrated by recent GPU shortages and moves by some miners to use hardware built into gaming laptops. Gaming hardware maker Nvidia formally unveiled plans for dedicated mining hardware last week.

The price of ETH crossed the $2,000 mark for the first time last week. ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, is now trading hands at roughly $1,730, per data from Coinbase.

Ethereum Fees Shoot Above $30 Amid Sudden Market Dip

Ethereum (ETH) transaction fees have skyrocketed above $50 as the crypto market plunged into the red zone today. In the last 24 hours, ETH’s price has dipped to around $1,700, down over 12% on the day.

But for those who want to move their Ethereum, or trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), they’ll need to pay hefty sums.

According to metrics platform Etherscan, Transaction fees have surged to 1,450 Gwei (the unit in which Ethereum’s gas prices are measured), which equates to more than $50 for a high-speed transaction.

For an average-speed transaction users have to pay some $30 at press time—but their transfer will be confirmed in less than a minute. Even fees for low-speed ETH transactions have spiked to around $26, with these expected to take over an hour to get confirmed.

“Low," “average” and “high” refer to rough categories for how long a transaction is expected to take. It’s useful for measuring how much you need to spend on a transaction depending on how quickly you want it to take place.

For decentralized finance (DeFi) users, however, the prices are much worse. One transaction on Uniswap, Ethereum’s most popular DEX, currently costs anywhere between $217 and $286 in fees, depending on its priority. So, unless you’re trading a lot more than this, it’s probably not worth it.

ERC-20 and Uniswap fees. Image: Etherscan

Even transfers of Ethereum-based tokens are quite expensive today—between $70 and $93, Etherscan’s data shows. These are tokens that run on the Ethereum network but are not ETH themselves. Since transactions of Ethereum-based tokens are processed using smart contracts, they are more expensive.

An average transaction fee on Ethereum. Image: Blockchair

In this light, it’s hardly surprising that Ethereum users are flocking to alternative networks, irrespective of how centralized they are—such as Binance Smart Chain.