Ethereum fees have collapsed following the Dencun March 2024 upgrade, driving transaction costs down to record lows and reshaping incentives across the network.
Summary
How did the Dencun upgrade impact fees and base-layer revenue 62 dencun upgrade impact?
The Dencun upgrade in March 2024 lowered calldata and settlement costs, pushing average gas to about 0.067 Gwei. Practical on-chain costs now include roughly $0.11 for a token swap, $0.04 for bridging and about $0.19 for an NFT sale, per market trackers and network scans.
Industry metrics show a near-99% revenue collapse on Ethereums base layer, according to Token Terminal. Gas volatility earlier in October illustrated the swing: a peak near 15.9 Gwei on Oct 10 fell to 0.5 Gwei on Oct 12, and stayed under 1 Gwei for most of October and November.
What does the fall in gas mean for Arbitrum, Optimism and Base?
Lower calldata fees shrink settlement costs for rollups, benefiting ecosystems such as Arbitrum, Optimism and Base. That said, rollup efficiency has shifted fee capture away from the base layer toward layer-2 aggregators.
Are L2s seeing traffic gains or revenue shifts? 62 Many rollups report higher throughput, but the base chains settlement revenue has declined, creating a split between user-facing affordability and on-chain fee revenue for validators.
How are validator incentives changing and what are the risks?
Compressed fees reduce fee income for validators, making block rewards a larger share of compensation. Consequently, validators face narrower margins and fewer MEV opportunities, elevating questions over long-term security funding.
Independent analysis and industry commentary warn this dynamic could pressure network SUSTAINABILITY if low fees persist, since staking economics may no longer fully cover operational costs for smaller validators.
What did the MEV mistrial mean for legal and governance norms?
A high-profile MEV case involving Anton and James Peraire-Bueno ended in a mistrial, a development highlighted in the original reporting. That outcome fuels legal uncertainty around aggressive MEV extraction and transaction ordering practices.
Meanwhile, market observers note that legal ambiguity could temper predatory behavior but also complicate enforcement against exploitative ordering strategies.
What should investors and operators monitor next?
Watch validator revenue trends, L2 concentration and ethereum bridge fees for signs of structural stress. Moreover, track governance, protocol-level fee design and evolving legal precedents to assess whether the ecosystem balances low user costs with robust security economics.
