Over 3.46 million Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), valued at $6.68 billion, has been reduced to ashes since the London hard fork’s enforcement.
What Happened: Data from Dune Analytics shows that Ethereum witnessed an average monthly destruction of over 146,000 ETH.
As an upgrade to the Ethereum network, the London hard fork was enforced on Aug. 5, 2021. It introduced several significant changes, including the implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which introduced a new fee structure and the burning of the base fee portion of transaction fees.
To put the magnitude of these burnings into perspective, the estimated worth of $6.68 billion in obliterated ETH could purchase approximately 19,085 single-family homes, each priced at an average of $350,000.
The Ethereum network’s reduction was primarily driven by regular ETH transfers, resulting in the burning of nearly 300,000 ETH.
Additionally, transactions involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Opensea contributed to the burning of over 230,000 ether. Uniswap v2, a popular decentralized exchange protocol, played its part by causing the destruction of almost 200,000 ether.
It is worth noting that since the implementation of EIP-1559, just over 3 million Ethereum has been minted. Furthermore, the Ethereum network transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, known as “The Merge,” on Sep. 15, 2022.
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Why It Matters: Had The Merge not occurred, the network would have generated an additional 6.5 million ether.
Burning of ETH refers to the process of permanently removing or destroying Ethereum tokens from circulation. It typically involves sending ether to a smart contract or address that is designed to irreversibly lock or destroy the tokens.
The purpose of burning ETH can vary, but it is often done to implement deflationary measures, reduce supply, or provide benefits to token holders.
Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1931, up 0.42 % in the last 24 hours, data from Benzinga Pro shows.
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