Just like some of the brightest and busiest cities across the world, the crypto market also never sleeps. This innovative environment is always action-packed and full of cryptocurrency transactions from millions of people around the planet. Like any coin in the crypto universe, the Ethereum (ETH) galaxy also runs 24/7. 

As per recent data, Ethereum is processing over a million transactions on a typical day. Interestingly, many crypto enthusiasts found a way to identify the ideal—if not the best—times to give your ETH transactions the green light. Read ahead as we discuss the best time to buy Ethereum, send it to other wallets, and complete Ethereum transactions.

Ethereum transactions in a nutshell

Before we dig a little deeper, let’s take a quick look into how Ethereum transactions work. Ethereum uses an energy source called Ethereum gas. Just like how gasoline works to power up and run cars, ETH gas fuels the transactions and processes on the blockchain.

what is Ethereum gas fee

The Ethereum website defines gas as “the unit that measures the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on the Ethernet network.” Simply put, it’s the first thing you need to make successful ETH transactions. 

Gas prices are denoted in gwei—a small unit in the Ethereum network, which is equivalent to  0.000000001 ETH or one billionth of a whole coin. It’s important to note that the amount of gas required for any transaction is fixed at 21,000 units. On the flip side, Ethereum gas prices aren’t fixed at all—it varies depending on the complexity of the transaction. 

Simple transactions can cost you 21,000 units of gas, which is the minimum requirement for each transaction. But if you’re doing a more complicated transaction, like those used in decentralized finance (DeFi), you can be charged with around 1,000,000 gas. There are over 300 payment methods to choose from when buying Ethereum which are all listed on the Paxful website. 

To give you a better idea of how things are computed, here’s how the fees were calculated before the London upgrade, which is the latest update on the network—we’ll talk more about this later. 

Gas units (limit) x Gas price per unit = Gas fee

Let’s try to visualize this with an example. Let’s say Francesca had to pay Elizabeth 1 ETH, with a gas limit of 21,000 units and a gas price of 200 gwei. The computation would then be:

21,000 x 200 = 4,200,000 gwei or 0.0042 ETH

All in all, Francesca would pay 1.0042 ETH—including the fees. 1 ETH will be sent to Elizabeth, while the remaining 0.0042 ETH will be sent to the miner.

Ethereum gas changes after the London upgrade

In mid-2021, the Ethereum network implemented an upgrade to make the overall network more predictable for users. The London upgrade introduced high-level benefits such as providing better transaction fee estimation, facilitating faster transactions, and eliminating or burning a percentage of transaction fees.

Now, the computation of the total transaction fee looks like this:

Gas units (limit) x (Base fee + Tip) = Gas fee

Let’s use our real-world example. Suppose Francesca has to pay Elizabeth 1 ETH and the gas limit is 21,000 units with a base fee of 100 gwei. Francesca also includes a tip of 10 gwei. If we calculate these numbers using the formula above, the transaction will look like this:

21,000 x (100+10) = 2,310,000 gwei or 0.00231 ETH

In total, Francesca would pay 1.00231 ETH—including the fees. 1 ETH will be sent to Elizabeth, the miner receives a tip worth 0.00021 ETH and the base fee of 0.0021 ETH is burned. 

When is the best time to make an ETH transaction?

Now, fees might always be in every transaction you make but here’s the good news: there’s always the best time to carry off your transactions. If you want to save a bit of money from fees, you may want to consider trading between 12 AM and 4 AM (EST). This is the least busy time for ETH transactions since most folks in the United States are still asleep. During these times, people from the Asian region are wrapping up their day at work, while folks in Europe are only about to start their day.

Saturdays and Sundays are the ideal days to make ETH transactions since gas prices are usually at the lowest during these days. Tuesdays and Thursdays, on the other hand, are the busiest days on the network. This is also when gas prices are often at their highest.

It’s also worth mentioning that these time and day predictions can change at any time, depending on network upgrades and market movements. You can always check out certain websites that predict Ethereum gas prices to get a real-time update on how the gas prices are moving. 

Remember, many opportunities await when you unlock the potentials of Ethereum. As always, make sure you do your research to learn how to get the most out of ETH transactions. Good luck!

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