Ethereum network had its cheapest day in more than six months, which could signal that altcoins could rise sooner than many expected.

Gas fees on the Ethereum network hit a six-month low despite the ETH price showing a rebound over the weekend, which analysts at crypto analytics firm Santiment said could be a sign of an upcoming altcoin rally. According to an X post by Santiment dated April 28, the average fee for an Ethereum translation on April 27 was as low as $1.12.

Santiment, “Investors historically move between emotional cycles of feeling that crypto is ‘rising’ or feeling that it is ‘running out’, which can be observed through transaction fees” He said.

Santiment emphasized that fees tend to peak at local market peaks and decline to resting-state lows around market bottoms. Gas fees on Ethereum hit an eight-month high in February amid a wave of interest in the ERC-404 standard.

The popular crypto analytics platform suggested that low gas fees could signal a future increase in Ethereum network activity, signaling the start of an altcoin rally.

In the light of CoinGecko data, the Ether price gained 4.3 percent last week, gaining a slight increase.

On April 27, native tokens of Ethereum layer-2 networks Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon gained 11.7, 3.5 and 2.8 percent, respectively, making up three of the top five best-performing assets among the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

The decrease in network activity comes as Ethereum’s circulating supply surged to its highest point in the last month. According to data from Ultrasound.money, 74,458 new ETH were issued in the last 30 days, while only 57,516 were burned, resulting in a net supply increase of 16,979 new ETH.

This is in stark contrast to the previous five months, which witnessed a steady deflation. Despite the recent surge in ETH inflation, more than 437,000 ETH have been burned since the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called Merge, which took place on September 15, 2022.