Users pay the fees, measured in fractions of ether known as gwei, to execute transactions on the smart contract blockchain. Ethereum is becoming costlier to use as the latest meme coin mania has investors churning millions for a frog-themed token called pepecoin (PEPE). The daily median gas price, or transaction cost, hit a 12-month high of 87 gwei (one gwei is a billionth of an ether) early this week.