• The Ethereum average transaction fee has increased swiftly in recent weeks
• The daily activity and network growth have not kept pace

Ethereum [ETH] was buoyed by the recent wave of bullishness that swept across the crypto market when Bitcoin [BTC] rose past the $64k level.

Continued price gains beyond $64k inspire hope in the market, since this region has been a key resistance for BTC in recent weeks.

The ETH average fee was up by close to 12x compared to late August, but the price gains might offset users’ ire. The decline in the asset’s market dominance was another worrying sign, despite the price trend.

Ethereum fees have steadily trended higher

In a post on X, crypto data analytics platform Santiment noted that the average fee has steadily increased over the past month.

At the same time, Ethereum’s price has also increased by 17.69% since the low of the 16th of September.

The steady price increase has likely offset discussions on the rising fees. Yet, comparing the average fees of $0.29 on the 31st of August to the fee of $3.61 on the 24th of September, noted a remarkable ascent.

In the past few days, the fee has decreased once again to stand at an average value of $2.18. At the same time, the weighted social sentiment has crept into the positive territory.

This was good news for ETH investors, especially as the asset approaches the key resistance zone at $2.8k-$2.9k. Social media volume slightly increased in September, another minor victory for the bulls.

Transaction count up alongside the fees

The network activity has not rapidly increased to explain the rising network fees.

Read Ethereum’s [ETH] Price Prediction 2024-25

Although the transaction count has increased by roughly 10%, the daily active addresses and network growth have trended downward in the past three weeks.

It was likely that the base fee was higher compared to August because of a rise in activities such as NFT minting, or users might be willing to pay higher priority fees to speed up their transactions.