avalanche Avex
-7.10%
Users paid $13.8 million in transaction fees over the past five days to mint and move tokens and NFTs created with the inscription.
Inscription-based tokens are created by writing text from regular blockchain transactions and using an off-chain numbering system to track it. It was created as a workaround for the Bitcoin network due to the lack of native support for the token. They have recently spread to many other blockchains for various reasons. One of them is that it may be cheaper to move than the native token.
These low costs apply to most blockchains. Blockchains like Polygon and BNB Chain have created tens of millions of inscription-based tokens, but users have paid fees totaling about $1 million for each chain.
According to the Dune Analytics dashboard created by Hildobby, an anonymous researcher at VC firm Dragonfly, transaction fees spent on Dune for Avalanche have risen to $5.6 million per day over the past few days. The total amount of $13.8 million represents approximately 70% of all fees spent on Inscription across all blockchains tracked by the dashboard.
The Avalanche experienced two major periods of interest in the inscription. The first lasted about five days in late November and totaled transaction fees of about $1.5 million. However, fees have increased significantly in recent years.
This appears to be primarily due to a significant increase in inscription transactions during the latter period, increasing the overall demand for block space. Transaction costs have been rising steadily this month, with a notable spike on December 18, including exceeding 5,000 nAVAX, the gas price per unit on the blockchain.
In total, Avalanche processed 61 million inscription-related transactions, ranking third behind BNB Chain (77 million) and Polygon PoS (161 million). According to the Dune Analytics dashboard, Avalanche hosts a collection of more than 1,160 inscriptions.
overall activity
Transaction fees have also increased when issuing and moving inscription-based tokens on Arbitrum. About $3 million was spent over the past three days. This accounts for approximately 15% of fees spent on blockchain, which are tracked on the dashboard.
The total number of inscriptions across all blockchains has remained stable, but the number of addresses used to create inscriptions has recently increased dramatically. In previous peak seasons, around 50,000 addresses carried out inscription-related transactions, but yesterday 180,000 addresses did so. This is mainly due to the activities of BNB, Avalanche, and zkSync Era.
Whatever the reason for the sudden spread of inscriptions, as long as miners and validators can handle the increased network activity, they will certainly appreciate the additional income. However, this excludes Avalanche validators, who do not receive transaction fees and instead get burned.
Update: Added note to clarify that Avalanche validators do not take transaction fees.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet delivering news, research and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to provide objective, impactful and timely information about the cryptocurrency industry. Below are our current financial disclosures.
© 2023 The Block. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.