• The median gas costs for Ethereum dropped to 1.9 gwei as per Dune Analytics data.
  • Gas fees of 23.9 gwei are required to fund staking rewards.

As the volume of transactions on layer-2 networks keeps increasing, the median price of sending a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain has fallen to its lowest point in five years, with low-priority transactions falling to about 1 gwei or even lower.

On August 10th, Dune Analytics data showed that the median gas costs for Ethereum dropped to 1.9 gwei. From its March year-to-date high of 83.1 gwei, it has fallen by about 98%. Thus, reaching its lowest point since the middle of 2019.

Moreover, for low-priority Ethereum transactions (those transmitted in roughly 10 minutes), the price was 1 gwei, or around seven cents, according to Etherscan gas fee monitoring statistics for August 12.

Scaling Layer-2 Blockchains

Data blobs, also known as proto-danksharding, were introduced as one of nine Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). That went live via the Dencun upgrade in March. Their purpose was to reduce the transaction costs for layer-2 blockchains.

Although it currently relies on the L1 to validate the transactions, the Ethereum ecosystem has staked its plans for scaling on layer-2 blockchains. Which can process more transactions at lower costs by removing them from the layer-1 Ethereum blockchain.

Furthermore, in a post on X on August 10, Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann commented on the recent drop in gas fees. And said that Ethereum needs more L1 activity again. Also, gas fees of 23.9 gwei are required to fund staking reward. Which are payments made to those who assist in validating blockchain transactions; Köppelmann voiced his worry about this.

Compared to the Base blockchain, which saw over 109 million transactions in the previous 30 days, Ethereum’s layer-2 activity was 33 million, according to L2Beat statistics.

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