Someone Moved $1 Billion on Ethereum for Just $7

Someone just transferred 74.6 million Synthetix Network Tokens (SNX)—worth just over $1 billion—on the Ethereum network and paid a transaction fee of only $7.54 to do so, according to blockchain explorer Etherscan.

The funds were transferred from a contract called “Synthetix: Reward Escrow.” Synthetix is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for trading asset-pegged synthetic tokens on Ethereum. For example, a token might be pegged to the price of Tesla shares.

Notably, this might very well be one of the largest single crypto transactions to date. Last summer, a Bitcoin wallet came close to transferring $1 billion by moving 101,857 BTC—worth roughly $933 million at the time. On the other hand, that transaction would amount to nearly $4 billion if it was made at today’s prices.

While the SNX transaction is impressive by itself, Twitter users quickly pointed out that Ethereum transaction fees, nonetheless, are still a bit high for everyday use. A $7 fee becomes significantly move expensive if you only want to move a few dollars' worth of tokens.

As Decrypt reported last May, more than half of all Ethereum transactions were for less than $20, and 80% of transactions made were under $90. According to data scientist Alex Svanevik, co-founder of D5, this reflected how people use Ethereum in general.

He explained that Ethereum is the network of choice for many DeFi projects that are focused on micro-transactions. Additionally, it is a popular hub for mining pools, gambling apps and exchanges.

However, since DeFi exploded around last September, Ethereum transaction fees skyrocketed. Just recently, they have surged by almost 400%, reigniting debates on whether Ethereum is suitable for mainstream adoption. Many projects are working on layer two scaling solutions—but they haven't proved to be a solution to the high fees just yet.