Fee Market Contagion

Phenomenon

Fee market contagion describes a scenario where elevated transaction fees in one segment or layer of a blockchain ecosystem rapidly spread, impacting the cost and viability of operations across interconnected components. This phenomenon often occurs during periods of high network congestion, where a surge in demand for block space drives up gas prices. For instance, increased activity in a popular DeFi protocol can inflate fees on the underlying layer-1 blockchain, making all other transactions, including those for derivatives or options, prohibitively expensive.