Ethereum network activity has surged since April 2020, and even more so following the release of new DeFi services like that of Compound Finance, Balancer and KyberDAO. Now, miners have set a new record for revenue generation, as June has seen nearly 17% of total revenue be generated from transaction fees. For comparison, this figure was 10% in May.
Ethereum's transaction fees since 2016 with visible spikes in recent months Source.
Ethereum’s network fee experienced spikes in mid-June, but the upward trend began in mid April 2020. Likely contributors are the growth of yield farming programs in the DeFi space and the abundance of ponzi scams that have hit the market in recent months.
On June 14, Ethereum mining revenue jumped by 46% as a result of a $2.7 million transaction fee for a transaction that occurred on June 11. This transaction was later linked to a South Korean P2P exchange, with blockchain analytics and security firm PeckShield stating that the exchange “appeared to be a ponzi scheme.”
Several projects are working on bringing the transaction fees of the network down, including Loopring, which launched Loopring Pay in June.