EVM Inscriptions Gas Spend Hits a Record High of $8M

• Gas spending on EVM inscriptions hits record high: $8.3M in a day.
• Avalanche network sees the highest gas spending, followed by Aribitrum One and BNB Chain.
• Inscriptions spike transaction fees and strain EVM networks like Ethereum and Bitcoin. Innovative solutions needed.

The surge in demand for blockspace caused by the Ordinals inscription craze is not limited to the Bitcoin network alone. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains have also experienced a significant increase in inscriptions, leading to a spike in gas fees over the weekend.

On December 16, gas spent on inscriptions reached a record high of $8.3 million, according to data from Dune Analytics. The Avalanche network accounted for the highest amount of gas spent, with over $5.6 million on that day alone. Aribitrum One followed closely with $2.1 million spent on gas for inscriptions.

Impact on EVM Networks and Bitcoin

In the past 24 hours, 58% of network gas fees on Avalanche and 48% of zkSync Era’s gas fees were dedicated to EVM inscriptions. The BNB Chain also saw a significant portion of its transactions, 73% in total, dedicated to inscriptions.

The situation became so severe on the Arbitrum One network that it caused a 78-minute outage on December 15. EVM inscriptions, similar to Ordinals on the Bitcoin network, involve embedding information in transaction call data to generate unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on-chain.

Notably, the Bitcoin network has also witnessed a surge in inscriptions over the weekend, leading to increased block space demand and transaction fees. Currently, there are nearly 280,000 unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin network, causing transaction fees to spike as high as $37.

Secondary sales of the Ordinals collection reached $4.8 million on December 17, according to CryptoSlam.