🚀 Gas rates in Avalanche skyrocket due to BEEG event 😱

On December 18, the Avalanche network saw an increase in its average gas rate, reaching 5,110.30 nAVAX (approx. $4.41). This is due to the BEEG event, created by Trader Joe's founder, @cryptofishx. BEEG, a social experiment with no practical use, saw surprising adoption: in 2 hours and 15 minutes, 37% of BEEG was minted and attracted 4,300 holders.

This increase in activity caused congestion on the Avalanche network, leading to an apology from @cryptofishx and discussions to address emerging challenges.

This development is part of a broader trend affecting several Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. On December 16, gas spent on sign-ups at these chains reached a record $8.3 million.

Avalanche was the hardest hit, with more than $5.6 million spent that day, followed by Aribitrum One, which saw $2.1 million in sign-up gas fees.

In the last 24 hours, 58% of gas rates on the Avalanche network and 48% on the zkSync Era network went to EVM sign-ups.

The situation came to a head on the Arbitrum One network, causing a 78-minute outage on December 15.

The rise in popularity of signups has increased demand for block space and transaction fees, leading to nearly 280,000 unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin network.

Rising fees, which have reached $37 on the Bitcoin network, have made it difficult to complete small transactions.

Adam Back, a prominent figure in the Bitcoin community, commented that despite high fees, sign-ups and similar innovations are unstoppable and encourage the adoption of second-layer solutions and further innovation in the space.

What do you think about this increase in gas rates? Comment below! 👇