Around $800,000 worth of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum ($ETH) are currently being burned every hour according to available data. Ethereum burns started after the network’s London hard fork went live on August 5.
According to data from tracking website Watch the Burn, first reported on by Benzinga, around 202 ETH, worth $818,880 are being burned every hour. This means that in a day, nearly $31 million worth of the cryptocurrency, 7,642 ETH, are burned.
Per day, Ethereum’s net issuance is around 5,988 ETH worth over $24 million, which means that its net supply reduction stands at around 56.02%. Since the cryptocurrency’s burning mechanism was introduced $4.8 billion worth of ETH has been burned, while its total net issuance was $2.3 billion. The figures show a total net reduction in Ethereum’s supply of 67.46%.
The London hard fork included the implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which changed the way transaction fees on the network work. Instead of an auction system, users now pay a base fee for their transaction to be processed by miners, and can alternatively tip miners to get their transactions to be processed faster.
Miners aren’t paid the base fee as it could incentivize them to artificially congest the network to keep it high and earn more. Instead, the base fee is burned, effectively removing ether from circulation forever. It rises when there’s higher demand, and drops when demand is lower.
The supply reduction helps Ethereum’s inflation rate drop, and could make the cryptocurrency deflationary if the burn rate gets high enough. Investors have been bullish since the upgrade went live, with the price of Ethereum moving from around $2,700 on August 5 to around $4,000 at the time of writing.
As CryptoGlobe reported, Singapore-based cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Three Arrows Capital has seemingly invested over $84 million on Ethereum after its price recently dropped below $4,000.
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