Ethereum Dominates 2024 Blockchain Revenue with Staggering $2.48 Billion in Gas Fees

Ethereum led all blockchains in fee income for 2024, amassing $2.48 billion throughout the year. This robust fee performance, however, stood in stark contrast to ETH’s valuation, which did not meet expectations during the same timeframe.

In total, Layer 1 and 2 blockchains collectively garnered nearly $6.9 billion from transaction fees last year.

Ethereum Preserves Fee Supremacy Despite Dencun Upgrade

As reported by CoinGecko, Ethereum’s fee income observed a 3% rise compared to the $2.41 billion generated in 2023.

In spite of the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which reduced Layer 2 transaction expenses and a continuous migration of users from the primary Layer 1 chain to Layer 2 scaling solutions, Ethereum retained its lead in fee generation.

CoinGecko disclosed that the fees earned by Ethereum varied each month. In 2023, it produced between $91.22 million and $448.70 million monthly, experiencing higher income during the meme coin mania in May and the market growth at year’s end. In 2024, this range significantly widened, with monthly earnings oscillating between $62.82 million and $606.77 million.

Ethereum’s fee revenue hit $1.17 billion in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for nearly half of its yearly total. This represented the blockchain’s best quarterly performance in two years, due to an increase in on-chain activities sparked by airdrop programs.

Bitcoin and BNB Chain Trail Behind

Tron emerged as the second highest-earning blockchain, amassing $2.15 billion in fees for 2024, reflecting a 116.7% increase from $922.08 million the year prior. The surge in Tron’s fees was predominantly fueled by heightened stablecoin adoption, with monthly revenues climbing from $38.36 million in January 2023 to $342.54 million in December 2024.

Following Tron was Solana, whose annual fee revenues soared by 2,838%, leaping from $25.55 million in 2023 to $750.65 million in 2024. It was the most favored blockchain ecosystem of the year, with transaction volumes escalating to the point of network congestion in April 2024. Solana’s monthly fee revenues were consistent in 2023 but fluctuated dramatically in 2024, starting at $15.54 million in January, reaching a peak of $197.5 million in November, and settling at $120.95 million in December.

Conversely, Bitcoin’s fee revenues increased by nearly 16%, while BNB Chain experienced an 8.7% uptick, both demonstrating more gradual growths. Bitcoin’s expansion was bolstered by increased activity from Ordinal NFTs, BRC-20, and Rune tokens, coupled with rising interest in developing applications on the Bitcoin blockchain.