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Ethereum topped all blockchains in fee revenue for 2024, generating $2.48 billion for the year. However, this strong performance in fees contrasted with the ETH price falling short of expectations over the same period.
All told, Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains collectively earned nearly $6.9 billion in transaction fees last year.
Ethereum Maintains Fee Dominance Despite Dencun Upgrade
According to CoinGecko’s latest report, Ethereum fee revenue saw a 3% increase compared to $2.41 billion earned in 2023.
Despite the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which reduced transaction costs at Layer 2, and the continued migration of users from the Layer 1 main chain to a scaling solution at Layer 2, Ethereum maintained its dominance in fee income.
CoinGecko found that the fees earned by Ethereum fluctuated from month to month. It generated between $91.22 million and $448.70 million per month in 2023, with higher earnings during the May meme coin frenzy and year-end market surge. In 2024, this range widened significantly, with monthly earnings falling between $62.82 million and $606.77 million.
Ethereum’s fee revenue reached $1.17 billion in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for nearly half of its annual total revenue. This was blockchain’s best-performing quarter in two years, thanks to a surge in on-chain activity fueled by airdrop initiatives.
Bitcoin and the BNB chain lag behind
Tron became the second highest-grossing blockchain, earning $2.15 billion in fees in 2024, a 116.7% increase from $922.08 million the previous year. Tron’s fee growth was largely driven by the expanding use of stablecoins, with monthly earnings rising from $38.36 million in January 2023 to $342.54 million in December 2024.
Next up was Solana, whose annual fee revenue soared 2,838%, jumping from $25.55 million in 2023 to $750.65 million in 2024. It was the most popular blockchain ecosystem of the year, with transaction volumes growing to to network congestion in April 2024. Solana’s monthly revenue was stable in 2023, but rose wildly in 2024, starting in January at $15.54 million, reaching an all-time high of $197.5 million in November, and settling at $120.95 million in December.
On the other hand, Bitcoin’s fee earnings increased by almost 16%, while BNB Chain saw an increase of 8.7%, both showing more moderate increases. Bitcoin’s growth has been fueled by more activity from Ordinal NFTs, BRC-20 and Rune tokens, in addition to growing interest in development on the Bitcoin blockchain.
