On-Chain Transaction Costs Remain Low: Bitcoin and Ethereum Users Continue to Enjoy Minimal Fees
Recent analysis shows that on-chain transactions on the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks continue to maintain minimal fees, making it convenient for users. Specifically, transaction fees on the Ethereum network have remained below 1 gwei, while transaction volume on Bitcoin has increased slightly but still maintains reasonable costs.
Low Costs for Blockchain Operations
On March 15, 2025, the cost of a high-speed ether transaction was only around 1.53 gwei (equivalent to $0.05), while standard or slower transactions ranged from 1.07 to 0.57 gwei (equivalent to $0.03 to $0.02). The Ethereum network has maintained a steady transaction volume of 1 million to 1.358 million transactions per day, a strong trend that has lasted for many months.
Activities like token swaps on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), non-fungible token (NFT) trading, bridging, and borrowing all happen at minimal cost. Currently, token swaps on the ETH network cost around $0.81 for expedited processing, but savvy users can do it for as little as $0.30.
NFT users can choose to pay around $1.38 for priority transactions or as little as $0.51 for standard transactions. For asset bridging transactions, the fee is just $0.10, and participating in borrowing protocols costs just $0.69.
ETH Transfers and Stablecoin Transactions
Simple ETH transfers are always cheaper than interacting with smart contracts, due to the difference in computational resources required. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin network has seen daily transaction volumes ranging from 300,000 to 530,000 over the past 30 days.
Bitcoin’s mempool — the queue of pending transactions — remains clear, with just 13,089 unconfirmed transactions as of 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. According to data from mempool.space, a high-speed transaction on the Bitcoin network costs about 2 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), or $0.24. The average fee for a Bitcoin transaction is about 0.000012 BTC (equivalent to 4.9 sat/vB), or $1.03 based on current rates.
Ideal conditions for blockchain users
The low fees and favorable network conditions of both Bitcoin and Ethereum reflect modest demand, providing a good opportunity for users to conduct seamless transactions. Whether this trend continues will depend on changes in market dynamics and future network congestion levels.