Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) was the cryptocurrency with the highest increase in transaction fees in 2021.
What Happened: According to a study by Forex Suggest, Dogecoin fees surged 4,230% to $0.433 from $0.01 between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 1, 2021.
Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) recorded the second-largest increase in transfer fees which rose 3,810% to $0.00649 in 2021, while Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) saw a 1,459% increase.
Forex Suggest attributes this to the high levels of demand for transacting over the smart contract network.
Why It Matters: The massive fee surge can be attributed to Dogecoin’s popularity following numerous tweets from Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
Still, the Dogecoin blockchain remains one of the lowest-cost blockchains today. Benzinga reported on Wednesday that a whale moved close to 263 million DOGE worth $29.6 million in a single transfer. This transaction was executed for just $0.11 in fees, data from the Dogecoin blockchain explorer shows.
See Also: Ethereum Fees Drop To A 7-Month Low: Here's Why
Ethereum remains the most expensive blockchain in terms of fees by a large margin. The average fee exceeded $50 for a single transaction, according to the report.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was the second most expensive blockchain despite recording a 29% decline in transfer fees over the year. The average fee on the Bitcoin network was still considerably lower than Ethereum at $4.09 per transfer.