Key Points
- Ethereum’s median gas price has dropped significantly, potentially due to Layer 2 networks’ influence.
- Bitcoin miner revenue has reached record lows following the latest block reward halving event.
Ethereum’s mainnet saw its median gas price dip below 3 gwei on Saturday, a level not witnessed since 2020.
This substantial decrease suggests that Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks might be effectively reducing transaction costs on the second most valuable blockchain globally.
Ethereum Gas Price and Bitcoin Miner Revenue
A year ago, the median gas price was around 15 to 20 gwei, which is significantly higher than Saturday’s rate.
The peak gas prices in 2024 were in March, with the highest one-day median gas price recorded on March 5 at 83 gwei.
Following the Dencun upgrade on Ethereum on March 13, which introduced “blobs” to Ethereum and lowered Layer 2 networks’ transaction costs, the median gas price has consistently fallen.
This reduced gas price has led to a 12-month low in Ethereum’s burn rate, causing Ethereum to be slightly inflationary, with a seven-day average supply growth of 0.56%/year.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners have experienced low revenue in the wake of Bitcoin’s latest block reward halving on April 20.
Bitcoin Mining Industry
The revenue per terahash per second (TH/s) for miners has reached record lows in the past two months.
One potential cause for this reduced profitability could be the decrease in new wallets joining the Bitcoin ecosystem, with the seven-day average of new Bitcoin wallets currently at its lowest since 2018.
Despite this, mining companies like CleanSpark continue to perform well, with CleanSpark surpassing Bitcoin’s price for the year to date.
Other companies such as Bitfarms and Core Scientific have also exceeded Bitcoin’s price year-to-date, although smaller mining firms have faced challenges.
The former U.S. President Donald Trump has engaged with the Bitcoin mining industry representatives in the United States, indicating support for miners if he wins the upcoming Presidential election in November.
