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If someone wants to move 10 ETH from an exchange like Coinbase to their hardware wallet, will gas fees be higher when the ETH price is 1,200 or 1,500? In other words, would it be cheaper to move the crypto while the price of ETH is lower rather than wait when the price is higher?

I have no idea how Ethereum gas fees are calculated based on the number of ETH being transferred and would like to preview those fees before entering market orders on exchanges, who seem to just dream up what the gas cost will be on the spot. Could someone link the most reliable gas fee calculator that doesn't sit on an exchange?

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  • this euforia of rising crypto prices is going to end soon and the gas price will drop Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 3:56
  • so you're saying there is positive correlation between the ETH price and gas fees? Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 4:13

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Assuming the network has the same level of congestion a transaction when ETH price is $1200 will use the same amount of Ether as the same transaction when ETH price is $1500. In your case, that means that waiting for the ETH price to dip would have no effect as you would end up with the same amount of Ether in the destination account.

In terms of the dollar amount spent the value will de different.

Transaction cost is calculated with units of gas which are paid for with Ether. Depending on network congestion this gas price will change. You can see the current cost of a gas unit (denominated in gwei) at ethgasstation.info or at gasnow.org.

The total cost of a transaction is the product of the gas price and the number of gas units used. A certain transaction will use the same amount of units so the cost will depend only on the gas price. The gas price varies greatly and has daily dips so it can be worth waiting for the optimal time (see this Dune analytics dashboard) so you can send a cheaper transaction.

Withdrawal fees for exchanges can be even more expensive as they generally also bill you for the cost of their internal transactions.

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  • is it right to say that, when ETH is having a bullish run in the market, the level of congestion will be higher, resulting in positive correlation between the change in price and the change in gas fees? Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 3:12
  • Usually it has been so, yes Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 8:25
  • Liked this answer more than the other. To me, the key point is that at the same level of congestion the user will spend the same amount of units of gas to transact (and therefore the same amount of ETH); however, when measured in USD dollars, they will be costlier because that same amount of ETH costs more in that currency (due to the high price) Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 21:45
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Gas prices rise based on people trying to outbid each other to make transactions faster. There is no direct tie to eth price, but it is typical to see more congestion when eth prices are higher, because there is more interest in the eth market. If congestion in the network (ie number of people trying to make transactions) is constant and people are not raising the gas value on their transactions to try and outbid each other to interact with different services quickly or move money quickly, in theory the gas price would stay the same. Its all about how many people are trying to make transactions at a given time, and how much they value their transaction being approved faster.

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Short answer can be: gas prices are correlated with ETH volatility, which is sometimes correlated with high ETH price, but not always.

From trader's point of view, there are 3 causes of high volatility:

  • ETH price goes up a lot -> many traders want to "catch the train", maybe some think price is too high and want to "leave the train" -> gas prices skyrocket
  • ETH price goes down a lot -> many traders want to "leave the train", some may think price is good enough to buy and "enter the train" -> gas prices skyrocket
  • ETH price goes up and down a lot in short time periods -> traders think this pattern will repeat, so many will try "buy low sell high" -> gas prices skyrocket

MEV bots make this even worse. From MEV bot's point of view:

  • high volatility -> prices on various exchanges get destabilized, so there are many occasions for arbitrage, and there are many liquidations in lending markets -> many MEV bots compete to be the first one to do arbitrage or liquidations -> gas prices skyrocket
  • high volatility -> many traders trade -> many MEV bots compete to force traders pay more they initially assumed (slippage) -> gas prices skyrocket (and additionally unaware traders pay "hidden tax" to MEV bots)
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Gas prices will be higher when volatility increases. Because the only reason Gas prices go up is because Ethereum if full of trading bots, and they all do currency arbitrage. When volatility increases the amount of potential profits increases a lot, and trading bots can pay huge fees because the amount of money they are making is also huge. To pay lower fees you would have to wait for the volatility to decrease

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  • so gas fees work almost on a variable percentage basis based purely on volume? for example, trading 200 ETH will always have a 2% gas fee compared to a small trade of 2 ETH that only incurs 0.002%? Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 4:17
  • No, gas used is constant. Concretely for a simple ETH transfer it is 21000 gas, no matter if you move 0.001 or 1000 ETH. Gas price, however, varies, based predominantly on network conditions. Currently around 80 Gwei for a reasonably quick resolution, 21000*80/10^9 ~ 0.0017 ETH for a transfer. Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 8:39
  • I gave my vote to Bruce Darcy's answer. The claim "the only reason Gas prices go up is because Ethereum if full of trading bots" is not true. Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 2:13
  • @pwagner you are just a newbie Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 15:37

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