More than $1 billion of ether has already been burned following the network's recent London hard fork upgrade

• More than $1 billion of ether has been burned in just six weeks following the network's London hard fork upgrade.
• 298,097 ether in base fees has been permanently removed from circulation since the upgrade was implemented on Aug. 5.
• The network is reportedly already reaping the benefits of the upgrade.

More than $1 billion of ether has been burned in just six weeks following the network's London hard fork upgrade.

According to burn tracking site etherchain.org, 298,097 ether in base fees has been "burned" and permanently removed from circulation since the upgrade was implemented on Aug. 5.

The hard fork upgrade introduced the EIP-1559 fee burning mechanism, which was designed to give the network the capacity to process more transactions. According to CoinDesk, the network is beginning to reap the benefits of the upgrade. While transaction fees are still nearing all time, gas price volatility has shrunk.

Cryptocurrency analysts predicted in August that the upgrade that would cause a sharp rise in the price of ether. Since the upgrade, the world's second largest cryptocurrency has risen roughly 22%.

The coin is currently trading around $3,498. It's down about 19% since it's all-time high in May.