Ethereum’s Falling Fees Do Not Mean Falling Use, Bitwise Finds

Bitwise reports that Ethereum’s network fee revenue fell 51% year over year in Q2 to about $64 million, but the drop was driven by cheaper, more abundant blockspace rather than weakening demand. Transaction activity increased sharply to 203.9 million transactions from 121.1 million a year earlier, and throughput rose to 26 transactions per second as the block gas limit expanded to 60 million. In ETH terms, revenue actually increased for the first time in over a year, highlighting that the dollar decline was partly a price effect from weaker ETH prices. Staking also strengthened, with active stake reaching a record 40.2 million ETH, or 33% of supply. The broader takeaway is that lower fees do not necessarily signal reduced Ethereum usage; instead, they may reflect scaling improvements and healthier network activity.