Elizabeth Warren takes aim at high ethereum network fees that she says could wipe out small investors

Elizabeth Warren takes aim at high ethereum network fees that she says could wipe out small investors

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has criticized the high fees on network during heightened trading volatility, arguing they could substantially harm small investors. Ethereum network fees can change rapidly, largely because the blockchain uses a blind auction system to set them. Users must put in bids to have their transaction processed and verified by miners. That rivalry means fees can soar when the network is busy. "In the face of these high, unpredictable fees, small investors could easily get jammed and wiped out entirely," Warren said in remarks to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler at the on Tuesday. The senator's comments were centered on the last week, the same day El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender. She put forward a scenario of wanting to buy a hypothetical token worth $100 at that time to illustrate her point about fees. "The fee to swap between two crypto tokens on the ethereum network was more than $500, obviously way more than the $100 I was trying to trade in the first place," she said. The way fees were calculated on the ethereum network , codenamed EIP-1559. But the aim wasn't to necessarily make them cheaper - only to make them more predictable. Warren, chair of