Key Points
Despite a decrease in on-chain activity, Ethereum continues to lead in all-time gas fees, especially in the DeFi sector.
This is in spite of the lowest transaction costs in over four years.
According to data analytics platform Growthepie, Ethereum’s Layer 1 blockchain still dominates in all-time gas fees generated across all sectors, except for social.
Ethereum’s Dominance in DeFi
In DeFi alone, Ethereum has accumulated over $1.68 billion in total gas fees.
It surpasses other blockchains in DeFi gas fees on all timeframes.
This indicates that Ethereum remains the dominant platform in terms of DeFi usage, despite Layer 2 solutions offering cheaper fees.
While Ethereum is generating the highest all-time gas fees, the actual transaction costs are at their lowest levels in over four years.
The last time it was this cheap to use Ethereum for transactions was in July 2020.
This is primarily due to the very low median gas price, averaging 3 (a fraction of an ETH).
On Feb. 16, it was even lower at 1.19 Gwei, the lowest since Jan. 2020.
Despite leading in gas fees and low transaction fees, the on-chain activity on Ethereum is slowing down.
This suggests less demand for Ethereum transactions rather than increased network efficiency.
The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of Ethereum’s on-chain volume dropped to approximately $3.77 billion on February 18.
This marks the lowest daily volume for Ethereum since Nov. 2024.