VanEck CEO Says Transaction Fee Is Bigger Story Than Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs

The
CEO
of
VanEck
–
the
global
investment
firm
whose
Bitcoin
Trust
(HODL)
is
among
the
almost
dozen
spot
bitcoin
ETFs
–
thinks
the
cryptocurrency
industry
should
focus
more
on
transaction
fees
and
not
so
much
on
Bitcoin

(BTC)
and
Ethereum

(ETH)
or
their
related
exchange-traded
funds.

Jan
van
Eck
said

on
CoinDesk’s
“Markets
Daily”
that
the
transaction
fees
on
the
Bitcoin
and
Ethereum
blockchains
are
unpredictable,
making
it
harder
to
build
applications
in
those
ecosystems.
“The
most
important
story
of
2023,
which
people
know,
but
I
don’t
think
they
focus
on
enough,
which
is
simply
that
transaction
costs
are
now
available
at
affordable
rates
through
Solana
or
the
so-called
layer
2s,”
van
Eck
told
CoinDesk
TV’s
Jen
Sanasie
in
an

interview.

“Because
you
see
the
transaction
fees
for
Bitcoin
and
Ethereum,
no
one
would
ever
use
that
database
to
build
anything
on,
right?
My
analogy
for
non-crypto
people
is,
would
you
want
to
fill
your
car
at
$50,
you
know,
week
after
week,
and
then
one
week
at
$600?
And
that’s
effectively
what
high
gas
fees
are
on
Ethereum,”
he
said.

Solana
(SOL),
often
referred
to
as
an
Ethereum
killer,
is
a
layer
1
protocol
with
cheaper
costs
and
faster
transaction
speeds
than
Ethereum.
Layer
2s
are
separate
blockchains
that
are
built
on
top
of
layer
1
chains,
such
as
Ethereum,
to
reduce
bottlenecks
with
scaling
and
data
that
layer
1s
face.

Ethereum
rollups
and
the
Lightning
network
on
Bitcoin
are
examples
of
layer
2s.

With
new
solutions
for
lower
and
much
more
predictable
transaction
fees,
developers
can
now
build
applications
that
are
much
more
useful,
which
Jan
Van
Eck
predicts
will
be
more
prominent
going
forward.
“The
most
interesting
thing
happening
in
crypto
to
me
right
now
is
that
you
have
databases
that
can
scale,
that
can
take
a
lot
of
users
of
high
uptime
and
now
have
predictable
costs.
And
so
real
stuff
can
be
built
on
these
databases
now,”
he
said.
“We’re
going
to
see
that
in
the
next
couple
of
years.”

He
also
said
that
its
unlikely
that
ether
ETFs
will
be
approved
by
their
May
deadline,
as
unlike
the
bitcoin
ETF
approval
process,
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
has
been
not
responsive
to
filings
by
the
prospective
issuers.

“We’ve
filed
our
S1
and
we
haven’t
heard
anything.
So
that’s
kind
of
a
sign.
It
won’t
happen
without
getting
the
disclosure
documents
in
order,”
Jan
Van
Eck
said.