Over the past three weeks, transaction fees, their volumes and number on the Ethereum network dropped significantly. This may be due to a decrease in the activity of speculators in the DeFi market.

Average transaction fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network hit a record $12 last month, posing a major concern for traders and other ETH users. As a result of this growth, Ethereum miners achieved a record profit of $166 million in transaction fees alone.

But in early October, the situation returned to normal, Decrypt notes. According to Glassnode, the amount of funds earned by miners from transaction fees on the Ethereum network fell from a peak of 42,763 ETH as of September 17 to 5,898 ETH on October 4, which is equivalent to a decline of 86.2% in less than three weeks.

The average transaction fee fell from its September peak of $11.62 to current $2.1. This makes it much easier to use the Ethereum blockchain.

Other important metrics also showed a decline. The number of transactions on the Ethereum network also dropped significantly and reached 935,000 on October 4, which is 29.2% less than a record 1.32 million transactions as of September 17.

The value of transactions also decreased, from 6.5 million ETH on September 17 to 1.7 million ETH yesterday (-74%).

The rise in transaction fees seen on the Ethereum network between June and September was largely attributed to the rapidly growing decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. The decrease in fees shows that the hype around DeFi protocols and their profitability has declined. Most major DeFi coins suffered crushing losses over the past week, including Uniswap (-27.6%) and Yearn Finance (-41.2%).