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Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has recently experienced a significant surge in transaction fees.

According to data from IntoTheBlock, Ethereum's weekly fees have soared to $45 million, the highest level since June 10, 2024.

The spike in fees highlights Ethereum’s growing network activity, even as Bitcoin continues to capture headlines as "digital gold" in traditional finance circles.

IntoTheBlock wrote: "ETH hit $45 million in weekly fees, the highest since June 10, 2024. While Bitcoin's 'digital gold' narrative captures more attention in traditional finance, Ether's growing network activity and price performance continue to impress."

Total  Ethereum fees surged by 188.51% in the past week to $45.2 million, according to IntoTheBlock data, indicating the rise in ETH fees as the price rose.

Cause for concern?

According to recent insights released by on-chain analytics platform Santiment, Ethereum's fees have been rising in recent weeks, returning to levels observed in late May.

In the past week, ETH rose to a high of $2,729 on Sept. 27. While there has been an uptick in network activity as the ETH price has recovered, conversations about these increased fees have remained relatively quiet.

According to Santiment, Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) is a major contributor to these fees, and it continues to lead Ethereum's fee leaderboard. WETH is an important part of Ethereum's decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem since it is a "wrapped" version of Ethereum that simplifies interactions with decentralized apps.

The dominance of WETH in fee contributions suggests that traders are heavily employing DeFi platforms, most likely for liquidity pools, trading and other financial activities that require WETH as a base asset. This shows that the current fee hike could be attributed to greater DeFi activity, which is generally a good indicator of the ecosystem's health.

It is worth mentioning that increased costs sometimes indicate that the market is approaching a speculative peak, as higher fees frequently correspond with a surge in network activity fueled by market hype.

However, the current small increase in cost is unlikely to be a reason for concern. Instead, it shows healthy, expanding activity in the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly DeFi and the speculative trading of smaller tokens.