The argument against cryptocurrencies is the high transaction costs of the leading digital asset network. However, in a recent publication on the Toshi Times website, it is reported that Bank of America charges $ 30 for outgoing domestic bank transfers and $ 35 for outgoing international foreign currency transfers. Thus, the average transaction costs in the Bitcoin network cost users about 300 times less.
That being said, the Fedwire official real-time money transfer system from the Fed allows banks to transfer funds and charge as little as $ 0.25 per transaction. Consequently, banks like Bank of America receive at least $ 29.75 per transaction, so we are talking about an 83% markup.
Bitcoin transaction fees were at their peak in November-December 2017, when there was a very high demand for cryptocurrencies. The price of Bitcoin then reached almost $ 20,000, and the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market was about $ 800 billion.
At the time, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were fighting for the scalability of their networks, as their blockchains were not ready for such a volume of transactions. In the months that followed, during the bear market, Bitcoin and Ethereum developers significantly improved blockchain scalability.
Bitcoin has implemented SegWit and the Lightning Network, which are expected to increase blockchain throughput in the near future. Since January, fees for bitcoin transactions have been declining and are now less than $ 1. The median (median) rate over the past year is $ 0.1, which is 40% less than Fedwire, and 300 times less than the cost of transfers in major American banks.
During the December peak, Bitcoin transfer fees reached $ 55. Today, the average commission is hovering around $ 0.491. Even with last year's peak in value, Bitcoin transactions are still, on average, cheaper than regular bank transfers. And new technical developments in the future are likely to further reduce the cost of cryptocurrency transactions.
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