Ethereum price gains 10% in a week — here’s why that could continue

Ethereum’s 30-day gains currently stand at an impressive 6.5%.
- Gas fee rates on the Ethereum network have continued to hover around the $45 mark over the last three weeks.
- Ethereum’s market dominance index (DI) has risen to over 19% for the first time in many months.
- A new study claims that the Solana network uses just 3,186,000 kWh per year, which is equal to the electricity usage of 986 American households annually.
After having scaled as low as $4,000 recently, Ethereum (ETH) has mustered solid financial support over the last 24 hours, gaining over 3% in value. At press time, ETH is trading at $4,129.
Despite having outperformed Bitcoin by more than 15% over the last 30 days, ETH still hasn’t reclaimed its former highs, currently facing daily price swings of around 3-5%. This volatility could be because the network’s gas fee rates have been hovering around the $45 range. But despite such exorbitant fee rates, some of the most prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) markets continue to operate out of the Ethereum network.
Also, with $1.25 billion in ETH options set to expire on November 26, it appears as though it is in the best interest of bulls to maintain the altcoin’s price above the $4,200 mark.
Global Axie Infinity craze continues
While the cryptocurrency market continues to face a high degree of bearish pressure, investors seem to show no signs of slowing down as far as the adoption of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) go. For example, late yesterday afternoon it came to light that a lucrative plot of land available within the Axie Infinity universe sold for a whopping 550 ETH.
And while critics continue to harp on the fact that the game offers players with nothing of significant physical value, for many users across the world, playing Axie Infinity has transformed into a full-time job. Earning a certain number of SLPs that are a part of the game can allow players to earn more than the minimum wage offered by many smaller nations.
New data reveals the amazing efficiency of Solana transactions
As per a comprehensive report released by the Solana Foundation yesterday, the average energy consumption of a single Solana transaction is less than the power it takes to process two Google searches as well as 24 times lower than what it takes to charge one’s smartphone. Technically speaking, while Google searches can take up 1,080 joules of energy, Solana transactions consume around 1,836 joules of power, which is quite surprising.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner’s guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing