Ethereum gas fees, once the infamous pain point for users during the DEFI and NFT boom in 2021, have recently dropped to unusually low levels.
ETH low air charge
As of February 26, 2025, the cost of a simple transfer to the Ethereum main network has fallen to $0.67. Several reasons for this reduction include: liquidity fragmentation in layer 2, the lack of new trends to increase network activity, and the overall slow crypto market.
Source: ETH Gas Tracker
Layer 2 fluidic fragments
Layer 2 (L2) solutions such as quorum, optimism and foundation are designed as key scaling mechanisms for Ethereum. By processing transactions on-chain and addressing them on the mainnet, L2 promises to reduce gas fees and increase transaction speeds to address Ethereum’s inherent scalability limitations.
according to COINTELEGRAPHL2 attracts higher transaction volumes compared to Ethereum’s main chain. This reflects a clear trend for users to move towards more scalable solutions to their blockchain activity.
According to Token Terminal data, the network fee was US$35.5 million on March 5, 2024, the highest level of the year. But just this week, network fees dropped significantly to $12.6 million.
Source: Token Terminal
This is the result of L2S returning low fees to Ethereum’s mainnet. Several criticisms about L2 returning low-income optimism only paid $14,000 to L1 in the third quarter of 2024, while charging a sequential fee of $2.9 million, a ratio that shows L2S retained most of its revenue and only remitted about 0.5% of L1.
When gasoline costs are so low, still need a 2nd floor?
Currently, Ethereum’s gas fee is very cheap and is sometimes used to trade under $1. Layer 2, such as arbitration and optimism, is established to determine high fees and slow speeds by handling transactions on major Ethereum chains. They worked: the expenses fell because L2 lowered the pressure. But with the mainnet fee already so low, you might be wondering – do we still need L2?
This advantage is not that important for basic tasks, as Ethereum can be used directly without incurring a significant cost. However, L2s are still valuable for heavy-duty users such as Defi Traders or NFT Minters, in which case the need for fast and cheap transactions is crucial. So while L2 is less important to everyone when the fees are low, it is still convenient for big players who make Ethereum scalable and fast.
Trends that lack drive activity: Ethereum and Solana
Compare this to Solana, after Meme Coin Trends In 2024 and 2025, cheer on network activities and revenue (for example, monthly expenses of $123.2 million as of February 26, 2025).
Source: Token Terminal
In fact, Solana witnessed Trump$ hype, which helped improve performance across the network. On the day of its debut, Solana’s price rose 19.10% to a monthly high of $295.34. It increased by 33.1% over the course of the week, highlighting the firm correlation between Meme Coin launch and Solana’s performance.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Instead, Ethereum has no big new trends or popular applications to promote activities like Solana. The Defi craze has gone, NFTs are no longer so hyped, and nothing new to replace them. So without any key players, transactions slowed down, and so did gas fees.
A slow market stagnates Ethereum
The overall slowdown in the crypto market is also a factor. Ethereum has been upgraded by ETF approval and Dencun upgrades, but by 2025, enthusiasm has disappeared. Ethereum’s price has not kept up with Bitcoin, and its market capitalization has not grown much. When the market is slow, people trade less, reduce usage, and make less speculative bets – all of which are used to increase Ethereum’s gas bill. As users compete for transactions less, fees will naturally remain low.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Increased gas limit: more space, less pressure
The decline in gasoline fees for Ethereum is also due to changes in the data that can be processed by each block. According to Decrypt, by the end of 2023, developers decided not to raise the gas limit above 30 million GWEI, but previous growth has already made the block bigger. This means more room for transactions, so even if activity increases a little, less competition can be included in a block.
Most importantly, the Layer 2 solution is handling more transactions, thus reducing the load on the Ethereum master network. As a result, the mainnet is rarely overcrowded, keeping gasoline fees at years-low levels, at five-year lows in early 2025.
