Massive spikes in stablecoin and decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions have seen Ethereum (ETH) overtake Bitcoin (BTC) in total value transaction volume.
The Ethereum network has also suffered multiple network congestions owing to this uptick. Fees spike on such occasions, resulting in miners earning more from transaction costs than the actual block rewards.
Ethereum May Soon See Annual Transactions Cross $1T
Tweeting on Oct. 21, Ryan Watkins of crypto research firm Messari revealed that the Ethereum chain saw two times more value transactions than Bitcoin. According to Watkins, the DeFi and stablecoin boom are responsible for this “flippening.”
Such is the extent of the network’s activity spike that Messari predicts Ethereum will record over $1 trillion in transactions in 2020. According to Messari’s data, Ethereum’s 2020 transaction volume reached $989 billion at the end of September.
Tether (USDT) transactions alone already outstrip the Bitcoin network as a whole. Indeed, back in Aug., BeInCrypto reported that Tether overtook Bitcoin in weekly transaction volume.
The chart below also corroborates BeInCrypto’s earlier reporting on the Tether–Bitcoin transaction volume flippening that occurred in late August. What’s more, data from on-chain analytics platform CoinMetrics shows that the bulk of the Tether volume is from the ERC-20 USDT.
Tether’s growth also coincided with the DeFi mania of Q3 2020. The yield-chasing hype saw on-chain liquidity reach astronomical levels to benefit automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap.
According to Messari, Uniswap and Curve recorded $20 billion in trading volume during September. Decentralized Exchange (DEX) platforms now reportedly account for 13.6% of all crypto exchanges’ total trading volume.
Uniswap traffic rose by about 43% in September, and according to data from crypto metrics provider Dune Analytics, the total DEX volume for October now stands at $9.42 billion.
The deflation of the DeFi bubble might result in a noticeable decrease in Ethereum network activity. Even the total DEX volume for October is less than half the $25.7 billion recorded in September, with less than two weeks remaining in the month. However, eToro’s Q3 report predicted that DeFi would continue to boost ETH.
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